The Boy Looked At Johnny by Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons Poetry by Philip Larkin, Primo Levi, William Blake & Siegfried Sassoon The Plague by Albert Camus (also rec’d by Jim Morrison) The Fall by Albert Camus (also rec’d by Henry Rollins, Jim Morrison & Philip Roth) The Stranger by Albert Camus (also rec’d by David Bowie, Jim Morrison, Leonard Cohen, Paulo Coelho, Philip Seymour Hoffman & Robert Smith)

Suddenly Last Summer by Tennessee WilliamsĪ Season in Hell by Arthur Rimbaud (also rec’d by Bob Dylan, Johnny Depp & Patti Smith)

Small Craft Warnings by Tennessee Williams Dive into the reading lists of other musical legends here. Eliot, find a list of Richey Edward’s favorite books below, archived by now-defunct fansite. His exploration of darker themes – such as capital punishment, child prostitution, self-starving and the Holocaust – featured heavily on the Manics’ masterpiece third album The Holy Bible, while his devotion to art and poetry appeared in the many esoteric quotes stamped on their record sleeves.įrom Tennessee Williams to T.S. Though he started off as a roadie and driver for the band’s early gigs, Edwards’ intellectual songwriting would become integral to the band’s legacy. tour – only cemented his status in modern music mythology. His 1995 disappearance – vanishing at the age of 27 from a London hotel on the eve of a U.S. Through highly publicized battles with alcoholism, anorexia, depression and self-mutilation, the enigmatic idealogue subverted rock’s traditional machismo, speaking with humor and humility on subjects previously considered taboo. Celebrated for his poetic, politically-charged lyrics and rhythm guitar work for Welsh alt-rock band Manic Street Preachers, Richey Edwards continues to be a powerful icon for the alienated.

A Life To Waste by Andrew Lennon