A Spaniard in the Works

A Spaniard in the Works

Company type	Book
Industry	Publishing
Founded	June 24, 1965 (1965-06-24)
Founder	John Lennon
Products	Absurdist literature, illustrations

A Spaniard in the Works is an absurdist book authored by English musician John Lennon, released on 24 June 1965. It contains whimsical stories and illustrations reminiscent of his earlier work, In His Own Write. The title plays on the expression "a spanner in the works". Within three months, it sold 100,000 copies, a figure lower than that of his debut book.

Background

The majority of A Spaniard in the Works was composed throughout 1964. Beatles road manager Neil Aspinall recalled Lennon working on the manuscript in Paris during January 1964, prior to the March launch of In His Own Write. Fellow band member George Harrison remembered Lennon writing while vacationing with their partners in Tahiti in May 1964; Harrison, Pattie Boyd, and Cynthia Lennon contributed lines and suggestions. Around this period, Lennon also crafted a parody inspired by his reading of the complete collection of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes tales.

After finishing most of the draft, publisher Jonathan Cape requested additional content and sent Lennon an Italian dictionary, which he found entertaining. Despite suggestions to modify or omit certain parts, Lennon insisted on keeping all material intact to maintain the work’s spontaneous character.

Content

A Spaniard in the Works was issued by Jonathan Cape in the UK on 24 June 1965, priced at 10s 6d, with a US release following on 1 July. Compared to In His Own Write, this volume is less restrained in both style and length; some pieces extend to five or six pages, including the nine-page Sherlock Holmes parody titled "The Singularge Experience of Miss Anne Duffield". The book comprises 56 works: twelve prose pieces, six poems, and 38 drawings. One piece called "The General Erection" offers a satire on the UK's 1964 general election.

The text features references to racial minorities and characters with disabilities. The titular story begins with a provocative depiction of a Spaniard, while "Our Dad" portrays a father disowned by his sons. Among the illustrations are two street performers wearing signs—one stating "I Am Blind," the other "I Can See Quite Clearly"—and an image showing a man observing a green four-legged creature.

Reception

A Spaniard in the Works quickly became a bestseller, undergoing four print runs within four months and selling over 100,000 copies. However, critics were mostly lukewarm, perceiving it as similar to In His Own Write but lacking its element of surprise.

Jonathan Gould characterized its parodies as somewhat strained and believed the writing did not reach the quality of Lennon's first book, though he commended its inventive wordplay, especially evident in "The General Erection". John Harris described it as a "more warped compendium" and noted that "The General Erection" demonstrated Lennon’s political insight. Tim Riley remarked that although hastily produced, the book was more ambitious with increased use of wordplay and genre parodies, showcasing Lennon’s talent for challenging norms and highlighting the emotional resonance of his drawings.

Analysis

English professor Ian Marshall refers to Lennon's writing as "mad wordplay," drawing influence from Lewis Carroll and foreshadowing lyrics found in songs such as "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "I Am the Walrus". Scholar William M. Northcutt interprets "The Wumberlog" story as expressing Lennon’s ambivalence towards crowds, illustrating a boy led by a "carrot" into a group digging his grave while mocking him.

James Sauceda’s 1983 work, Literary Lennon: A Comedy of Letters, provides a postmodern critique of both In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works, which Everett describes as "a thorough but occasionally misguided postmodern Finnegans Wake-inspired analysis." Riley acknowledges Sauceda’s perspectives but suggests that deeper insights emerge through examining Lennon’s biography; for instance, the poem "Our Dad" reflects Lennon’s complicated relationship with his father Alfred Lennon, mixing hostility with satirical inversion of traditional British odes.

Lennon connected his “sick” humor to experiences from school days, stating, "If it makes people sick, they're sick. It doesn't appear sick to me." Regarding his Sherlock Holmes parody, he noted that due to its numerous characters it felt almost like a novel.

Legacy

According to historian Erin Torkelson Weber, A Spaniard in the Works helped solidify John Lennon's reputation as "the intellectual" among the Beatles, a characterization that was further highlighted by their film A Hard Day's Night."

This book was the last collection of writings by Lennon published while he was alive. Although Lennon initiated a third compilation intended for release in February 1966, he ultimately discontinued the project; only the poem "The Toy Boy" was published in the December 1966 edition of McCall's. In 1986, Harper & Row issued the posthumous anthology Skywriting by Word of Mouth, which included pieces from Lennon’s late 1970s period when he embraced a "house-husband" lifestyle.

References

Sources

Books

• Beatles, the (2000). The Beatles Anthology. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 0-8118-2684-8.
• Everett, Walter (2001). The Beatles as Musicians: the Quarry Men through Rubber Soul. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-514105-4.
• Gould, Jonathan (2007). Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 978-0-307-35337-5.
• Howlett, Kevin; Lewisohn, Mark (1990). In My Life: John Lennon Remembered. London: BBC Books. ISBN 0-563-36105-0.
• Ingham, Chris (2009). The Rough Guide to the Beatles (3rd ed.). London: Rough Guides. ISBN 978-1-84836-525-4.
• Miles, Barry (2007) [1998]. The Beatles: A Diary – An Intimate Day by Day History. London: Omnibus. ISBN 978-1-84772-082-5.
• Riley, Tim (2011). Lennon: The Man, the Myth, the Music—The Definitive Life. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 978-1-4013-2452-0.
• Sauceda, James (1983). The Literary Lennon: A Comedy of Letters: The First Study of All the Major and Minor Writings of John Lennon. Ann Arbor: Pierian Press. ISBN 0-87650-161-7.
• Weber, Erin Torkelson (2016). The Beatles and the Historians: An Analysis of Writings About the Fab Four. Jefferson: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-1-4766-2470-9.

Book chapters

• Burns, Gary (2009). "Beatles news: product line extensions and the rock canon". In Womack, Kenneth (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 217–229. ISBN 978-0-521-68976-2.
• Harris, John (2004a). "Poll Position". In Trynka, Paul (ed.). The Beatles: Ten Years that Shook the World. London: Dorling Kindersley. p. 109. ISBN 0-7566-0670-5.
• Harris, John (2004b). "Syntax Man". In Trynka, Paul (ed.). The Beatles: Ten Years that Shook the World. London: Dorling Kindersley. pp. 118–119. ISBN 0-7566-0670-5.
• Marshall, Ian (2006). "'I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together': Bakhtin and the Beatles". In Womack, Kenneth; Davis, Todd F. (eds.). Reading the Beatles: Cultural Studies, Literary Criticism, and the Fab Four. Albany: State University of New York Press. pp. 9–35. ISBN 0-7914-6716-3.
• Northcutt, William M. (2006). "The Spectacle of Alienation: Death, Loss, and the Crowd in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". In Womack, Kenneth; Davis, Todd F. (eds.). Reading the Beatles: Cultural Studies, Literary Criticism, and the Fab Four. Albany: State University of New York Press. pp. 129–146. ISBN 0-7914-6716-3.
• Savage, Jon (2010). Foreword. In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works. By Lennon, John. London , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , isbn =978-0-09-953042-8 pages=xii–x: Vintage Books. {{cite book}}: Missing pipe in: |location= (help); horizontal tab character in |location= at position 8 (help)CS1 maint: location (link)

Magazine articles

• Wood, Michael (27 June 1968). "John Lennon's schooldays". New Society. pp. 948–949. ISSN 0028-6729.

External links

• Template:WorldCat
• [[[:Template:Google Books URL]] A Spaniard in the Works] at Google Books
• Lambiek Comiclopedia biography covering John Lennon’s career in graphic art, including commentary on A Spaniard in the Works]