Fall Book Preview

ByABC News
September 2, 2000, 5:06 PM

Sept. 3 -- Thirty years after their breakup, and 20 yearsafter the death of John Lennon, its time yet again to meet theBeatles.

In bookstores.

At least nine Beatle-related titles are expected this fall, fromthe authorized The Beatles Anthology to a biography of theirlate manager, Brian Epstein. Other books include an illustratedvolume of Paul McCartneys paintings, a reissue of Lennonscollection of verse, In His Own Write, and a look at theBeatles time in India with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

While a generation has been born and raised since the Beatleswere together, they remain a major moneymaker and culturalpresence. The bands albums sold more than 50 million copiesworldwide over the past decade. Dozens of Beatles fans clubs stillexist, from Australia to Russia to Brazil.

Fab Four Re-Issues, New Editions Beatle books have been coming out since the group first started,but readers apparently still want more. The Beatles Anthology,an oral history assembled by the three surviving Beatles andLennons widow, Yoko Ono, has advance orders of more than 1 millionand will be published in at least eight languages.

I remember being at the booksellers convention a couple ofyears ago and Linda McCartney was there to promote one of hervegetarian cookbooks, says Constance Sayre, director of MarketingPartners International, a publishing consultant.

The publisher gave a party and you should have seen the lineupof people to shake Sir Pauls hand. Youve never seen such a crowd.The Beatles are certainly a big deal with booksellers.

A minor surprise is the reissue of Lennon Remembers,Lennons famously bitter, marathon interview with Rolling Stonepublisher Jann Wenner, given just as the group was breaking up.Lennon had agreed to the interview on the condition that Wenner notput it out in book form. When he did so anyway, Lennon was enragedand spoke bitterly about Wenner right until the end of his life.