A founding member of the Beatles, and half of one of the most celebrated and influential writing teams in the history of rock and roll, John Lennon was a musician, writer and political activist whose tragic death elevated him to iconic status in pop culture circles around the world. Lennon brought wit, fire and poetry to his music with the Beatles; he emerged from the maelstrom of attention that surrounded the group to forge his own musical identity, first as a raw and uncompromising experimental rocker, and later as the composer of such wistful material as “Imagine.” An assassin’s bullet
