“I AM A WUMBERLOG YOU SEE”: RARE PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION FIRST EDITION OF JOHN LENNON’S A SPANIARD IN THE WORKS, WARMLY INSCRIBED BY LENNON TO MICHAEL HOWARD, HEAD OF LEGENDARY PUBLISHER JONATHAN CAPE

LENNON, John. A Spaniard in the Works. London: Jonathan Cape, 1965. Small octavo, original pictorial boards.

First edition of Lennon’s second book of illustrated stories and poems, a rare presentation copy with an especially distinctive association, inscribed by Lennon within a whimsical drawing on the double-page leaf printed “drawings of John Lennon,” his inscription in black ink, “To Michael Howard (their managing director) from John Lennon,” accompanied by Lennon’s inscription beneath an inkspot that notes his “author’s blot.”

John Lennon was often dismissive of his artwork, despite those in art school who encouraged his ability to “capture a face or object in a single bold, unwavering line.” Lennon’s teachers were not alone in spotting his talent. In the early 1960s Michael Howard, the managing director of Jonathan Cape, played a key role in appointing Tom Maschler as the firm’s senior editor, and it was Maschler who sought out Lennon with the idea of publishing the Beatle’s work. Encouraged by Howard and Maschler, Lennon’s first book In His Own Write (1964) was published the same year as the premiere of A Hard Day’s Night and “was a simultaneous popular and critical triumph.” Lennon soon contracted with “Jonathan Cape to produce a sequel for publication the following year. Having now used up all his student and Mersey Beat material, he had to start this second book from scratch…. To limber up, he began reading Chaucer, Edward Lear… [and] the material this time was both more ambitious and funnier… The book was called A Spaniard in the Works… British publication was on June 24, coincidently just after a Beatles European tour that included shows in two Spanish bullrings. To promote the book, John made the rounds of highbrow arts programs, both radio and television, often reading extracts as well as answering questions. He admitted A Spaniard in the Works had been a hard work of a very different kind from touring, songwriting, and recording” (Norman, John Lennon, 358, 360, 400-1). This exceptional presentation/association copy of A Spaniard in the Works is inscribed by Lennon to Michael Howard, the managing director of Jonathan Cape, and the son of the distinguished firm’s co-founder George Wren Howard. Named to the firm’s board in 1950, it was Michael Howard who steered the company toward more innovative authors and substantively encouraged the publication of Lennon’s In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works.

A fine presentation copy with an especially distinguished provenance.