January 21, 2011 17:05

John Lennon letters to be published after Yoko Ono sells rights

The legend's widow nets a reported £500,000

Photo: PA

A collection of John Lennon's letters are to be published next year.

Lennon was a profilic letter writer and the collection includes hundreds of letters he wrote throughout his life.

The letters were sold by the late Beatle's widow Yoko Ono for a reported fee of over £500,000 and have been bought by London-based publishing house Orion Books.

The physical copies of the letters were in the possession of The Beatles biographer Hunter Davies, but the intellectual property rights were owned by Ono - it is these that Orion have bought, reports The Guardian.

Alan Samson of Orion Books said: “These letters have never been collected in one place before, and for the most part they have never been seen before."

He added that the letters are "full of wonderful drawings. They are funny, sad and very human letters".

The collection is scheduled to be published in October 2012.