You are viewing your 1 free article this month.
Sign in to make the most of your access to expert book trade coverage.
White Rabbit to publish first ever collection of Johnny Cash’s lyrics
White Rabbit has acquired the first collection of Johnny Cash’s lyrics, "lavishly illustrated with rare photos, handwritten notes and ephemera".
Lee Brackstone, publisher, acquired world English language rights from Hachette Book Group for Johnny Cash: The Life in Lyrics by Cash with Mark Stielper and personal contributions from Cash’s son John Carter Cash, to be published on 23rd November 2023.
The publisher says the book marks the first time Cash’s 50 years of songwriting have been collected anywhere, as it is the first time the Cash Estate has opened its archive to a publisher, and that its publication will therefore be “a landmark moment in music publishing". Public historian Dr Brian Dempsey will oversee the visual contributions and 750 deluxe limited editions will be available at £95, in record stores only.
Carter Cash said: “There is no better way to know my father than to look at his written works. Whether the songs he recorded, his poetry, or material not published in his lifetime, he put his heart, blood and spirit into everything to which he added a pen. I am blessed to see this book being released, and to know that his brilliance and life are being honoured through focus on his greatest life creation, his words.”
Brackstone said: “This is a landmark publication by White Rabbit: a portrait through lyrics, contextualising commentary, rare photography and ephemera of a man whose outlaw spirit is now deeply and irresistibly entangled with the whole concept of Americana; and one of the true rock and roll revolutionaries. Johnny Cash: The Life in Lyrics will be a magnificent, beautiful art book; a monument to the legacy of Johnny Cash 20 years after his death.”
