Imagine John Lennon

In this pictorial biography of John Lennon, which includes 250-plus photos accompanied by quotes (Lennon's own and those of people who knew him) Lennon is all but canonized. We see him as a boy in his school uniform; as a teenage performer with George and Paul; with his first wife, Cynthia, and with their son, Julian; also with his and Yoko's son, Sean. There are snaps of Lennon on holiday with Ringo; Lennon playing pool and guitar; shots of the Beatles on stage with Ed Sullivan and practicing TM with the Maharishi; depictions of John and Yoko in bed, in studios and at home, in New York, London and Paris. The book deceivingly attempts to gentrify an iconoclastic, controversial, working-class hero and the counterculture he espoused, smoothing out the rough spotsand it is also the ``exclusive tie-in to the major Warner Bros. motion picture of the same name,'' written and directed by the authors. 250,000 first printing; first serial to Rolling Stone; Literary Guild featured alternate (October)