John Hoyland provided fascinating details of the background to this Lennon letter. Apparently it ...followed on from a public correspondence between the two in October 1968 and January 1969 in the pages of the radical left-wing broadsheet 'Black Dwarf', edited by Tariq Ali. This earlier correspondence, which became known as the "Dear John Letters", was widely syndicated around the world's underground press....Richard Neville, editor of 'Oz' magazine, described the letters as "a classic New Left/psychedelic Left dialogue", with Hoyland representing the new left in saying that what was wrong was "the system", and Lennon in response saying that what was wrong was people with "narrow minds" and "sick heads".

By the summer of 1971 'Black Dwarf' had folded. Hoyland, with a group of like-minded writers, was raising funds to start a new newspaper called '7 Days'... he wrote to Lennon ...reminding him of their earlier correspondence and asking him to support the new venture. In the course of his letter, Hoyland criticised the underground papers on offer at the time, such as 'Oz' and 'Ink', and also sectarian leftwing papers such as 'Red Mole'- which, incidentally, Lennon had given money to. In his letter regarding the '7 Days' project, Hoyland had criticised Red Mole for being ...narrow, dogmatic and sectarian - a criticism that [Lennon] seemed to agree with despite his earlier support for them...

Hoyland and the '7 Days' group were delighted to receive this letter but believed Lennon was only in New York for a short visit. They decided to wait until he returned to England before meeting him to discuss their new project. Unfortunately, he never did return...


Copies of the 'Dear John Letters' are available on request.