Editing Pete Townshend (section)

== Literary work ==
Although known for his musical compositions and musicianship, Townshend has been extensively involved in the literary world for more than three decades, writing newspaper and magazine articles, book reviews, essays, books, and scripts.

An early example of Townshend's writing came in August 1970 with the first of nine installments of "The Pete Townshend Page", a monthly column written by Townshend for the British music paper ''[[Melody Maker]]''. The column provided Townshend's perspective on an array of subjects, such as the media and the state of US concert halls and public address systems, as well as providing valuable insight into Townshend's mindset during the evolution of his ''Lifehouse'' project.

Townshend also wrote three sizeable essays for ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, the first of which appeared in November 1970. "In Love With Meher Baba" described Townshend's spiritual leanings. "Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy", a blow-by-blow account of the Who compilation album of the same name, followed in December 1971. The third article, "The Punk Meets the Godmother", appeared in November 1977.

Also in 1977, Townshend founded [[Eel Pie Publishing]], which specialised in children's titles, music books, and several Meher Baba-related publications. He also opened a bookstore named Magic Bus (after the popular Who song) in London. ''The Story of Tommy'', a book written by Townshend and his art school friend [[Richard Barnes (author)|Richard Barnes]] (now the Who's official biographer) about the writing of Townshend's 1969 rock opera and the making of the 1975 [[Ken Russell]]-directed film, was published by Eel Pie the same year.

In July 1983, Townshend took a position as an [[acquisitions editor]] for London publisher [[Faber and Faber]]. Notable projects included editing [[The Animals|Animals]] frontman [[Eric Burdon]]'s autobiography, [[Charles Shaar Murray]]'s award-winning ''Crosstown Traffic: Jimi Hendrix and Post-War Pop'', [[Brian Eno]] and [[Russell Mills (artist)|Russell Mills]]'s ''[[More Dark Than Shark]]'', and working with [[Prince Charles]] on a volume of his collected speeches. Townshend commissioned Dave Rimmer's ''[[Like Punk Never Happened]]'', and was [[commissioning editor]] for radical playwright [[Steven Berkoff]].

Two years after joining Faber and Faber, Townshend decided to publish a book of his own. ''[[Horse's Neck (book)|Horse's Neck]]'', issued in May 1985, was a collection of short stories he'd written between 1979 and 1984, tackling subjects such as childhood, stardom and spirituality. As a result of his position with Faber and Faber, Townshend developed friendships with both Nobel prize-winning author of ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'' Sir [[William Golding]] and British [[Poet Laureate]] [[Ted Hughes]]. His friendship with Hughes led to Townshend's musical interpretation of Hughes's children's story ''The Iron Man'', six years later, as ''[[The Iron Man: The Musical by Pete Townshend]]'', released in 1989.

Townshend has written several scripts spanning the breadth of his career, including numerous drafts of his elusive ''Lifehouse'' project, the last of which, co-written with radio playwright Jeff Young, was published in 1999. In 1978, Townshend wrote a script for ''Fish Shop'', a play commissioned but not completed by [[London Weekend Television]], and in mid-1984 he wrote a script for ''[[White City: A Novel]]'' which led to a short film.

In 1989 Townshend began work on a novel titled ''Ray High & The Glass Household'', a draft of which was later submitted to his editor. While the original novel remains unpublished, elements from this story were used in Townshend's 1993 solo album ''[[Psychoderelict]]''. In 1993, Townshend authored another book, ''[[The Who's Tommy]]'', a chronicle of the development of the award-winning [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] version of his rock opera.

The opening of his personal website and his commerce site Eelpie.com, both in 2000, gave Townshend another outlet for literary work. (Eelpie.com was closed down in 2010.) Several of Townshend's essays have been posted online, including "Meher Baba—The Silent Master: My Own Silence" in 2001, and "A ''Different'' Bomb", an indictment of the [[child pornography]] industry, the following year.

In September 2005, Townshend began posting a novella online entitled ''[[The Boy Who Heard Music]]'' as background for a musical of the same name. He posted a chapter each week until it was completed, and novella was available to read at his website for several months. Like ''Psychoderelict'', it was yet another extrapolation of ''Lifehouse'' and ''Ray High & The Glass Household''.

In 1997 Townshend signed a deal with [[Little, Brown and Company]] publishing to write his autobiography, reportedly titled ''Pete Townshend: Who He?'' Townshend's creative vagaries and conceptual machinations have been chronicled by Larry David Smith in his book ''The Minstrel's Dilemma'' ([[Praeger Publishers|Praeger]] 1999). After a lengthy delay, Townshend's autobiography, now titled ''[[Who I Am (book)|Who I Am]]'', was released 8 October 2012.<ref>Townshend, Pete. (2012) ''[[Who I Am (book)|Who I Am: A Memoir]]'', New York City: [[HarperCollins]]. {{ISBN|978-0-06-212724-2}}</ref> The book ranked in the top 5 of ''[[The New York Times]]'' best seller list in October 2012.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2012-10-28/overview.html |title=Best Sellers|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=28 October 2012 |access-date=10 January 2013}}</ref>

On 5 March 2019, Townshend announced that his debut novel, titled ''The Age of Anxiety'', would be published on 5 November 2019 by [[Hodder & Stoughton]] imprint Coronet. Townshend called the work an "extended meditation on manic genius and the dark art of creativity." The novel will be accompanied by an opera, which is currently in development, with an art installation to follow.<ref name=Guardian0319>{{cite news|last1=Flood |first1=Alison |title=The Who's Pete Townshend announces debut novel, The Age of Anxiety |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/05/the-whos-pete-townshend-announces-debut-novel-the-age-of-anxiety |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=6 March 2019 |date=5 March 2019}}</ref>

{{anchor|Spirituality|Religion|Religious views|Faith|Meher Baba}}