Spanning 40 years, "The Beatles Literary Anthology" compiles accounts of the Beatles by mainstream reporters, rock journalists, cultural commentators, acquaintances, and friends, including Greil Marcus and Geroge Melly. This extensive collection recounts the group's rise from the Merseybeat music scene, the British invasion that made them icons in the U.S., their experimentation with song structure and sound-recording technique that redefined pop music, their embracing of psychedelic drugs and pacifism, and the separate paths band members followed after their acrimonious breakup. The Beatles' influence on the baby boom generation is also acknowledged in essays by writers on both sides of the pop-culture divide. Conveying the excitement of youth culture during the great social changes of the 1960s, the writers underscore the extremes of a career virtually unparalleled in mass-media history.