The Third Eye: Early Photographs - Hardcover

Harrison, George

Hardcover

ISBN 13: 9798217154852

Publisher: Random House, 2026

Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An intimate, beautiful collection of more than two hundred never-before-collected photos of the Beatles at work and at play—many published for the first time—taken by their lead guitarist, George Harrison

This extraordinary book features:
• 200+ intimate images chronicling the Beatles’ rise to world fame, captured by one of their own
• Running commentary on the photos including never-before-seen quotes from Harrison himself
• Essays by Harrison’s widow, Olivia Harrison, and writers Colm Tóibín and George Saunders

From 1963 to 1969, George Harrison traveled the world with his bandmates, Pentax in hand, chronicling their impossible path from Liverpool to Ed Sullivan, Adelaide to Rishikesh, the Eiffel Tower to the beaches of Tahiti and beyond.

In this extraordinary collection of George’s personal photos and 8mm film stills—curated by Olivia Harrison, George’s widow—are singular images of Paul, John, Ringo, and George and the band’s friends and entourage as they rocketed to stardom and fostered the joyful madness that came to be known as Beatlemania. This revelatory, beautifully designed book takes the reader along on their first plane ride to the US, motorcades through the Australian outback, shopping trips in Paris, and more.

The candid, unguarded photos, brimming with Harrison’s wit, intelligence and penchant for experimentation (he was enamored of selfies, long before the iPhone), and snapped in those rare moments out of the spotlight offer a remarkable, inside look at the human beings behind the Beatles, trying to hold onto themselves—and enjoy themselves—while standing at the center of the storm.

The Third Eye opens a window into the world of the Beatles—and the transformative cultural moment that they sparked—through the singular artistic vision of George Harrison.

About this title

About the Author

George Harrison became known to millions of fans in the 1960s as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. His solo album, All Things Must Pass, topped the US and UK charts for weeks and remains the highest-selling solo album by any of the Beatles. He was the recipient of many awards, including twelve Grammys, appointment as an MBE by the Queen, and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame both as a member of the Beatles and as a solo artist.

Excerpt. Š Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1

Kinfauns, Surrey 1964-68

Esher, in Surrey, is about a five-hour drive south from Liverpool, or a traffic-y fifty-five minutes southwest of Abbey Road. It is where upscale suburbia melds into the English countryside. Where Queen Victoria owned a mansion, where the future King Leopold of Belgium resided, and where Sherlock Holmes journeyed with Dr. Watson to solve a ticklish murder. And in Esher, George purchased Kinfauns, a 1950s deluxe white bungalow with a longish drive, where he would live, retreat, record, and regularly entertain the other Beatles for more than five years. There was a girls’ school right next door, but as George remembered, “the headmistress was good and she told the kids to give me a bit of privacy.”

“I moved out of London first in 1964, and John and Ringo followed me,” George said. “The reason we moved was because it became too much there. There’d be all these people outside your flat, each time you wanted to go outside or back in. We always had to call the police to lead the way. . . . On the steps, there’d always be garbage—Coca-Cola cans or potato chips everywhere. No one we rented from would ever extend our lease.

“This being the first-ever house of my own, I tried to get it so it pleases me. I like the idea of it looking great in the way that I like it. When I first moved in, I got some fellow to get some furniture and he bought a lot of rubbish—I didn’t really like it and since then, I’ve changed things around a lot. I’m not a great believer in interior design and all that because it ends up you’re living in the designer’s house. I’d much rather do it myself.

“I remember that we toured Italy in the next year; it was so nice! The hotels, the journeys from place to place. The only thing that spoiled it for us was going to do the concerts. We’d often talk of having a tour where we didn’t have to play any shows. Everyone was using the mania as an excuse to go mad—the world did and they blamed it on us. But we were just inside of a car or a hotel room and really couldn’t do much of anything—we couldn’t even go outside.

“My family loved our success. My mother was a really nice person, though also naďve—as we all were in Liverpool in those days. She’d write back to anyone who would write to us. People still come up to me brandishing letters my mother wrote to them—she’d answer the fan mail. Even from people asking: ‘Dear Mr. Harrison, can you give us one of Paul McCartney’s toenails?’ ”

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798217154852
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352