We have discussed the insights of 1st gen fans who, frankly, were screamers in the presence of The Beatles (Debbie Gendler, author of this upcoming
memoir and Carol Tyler, author of
this one); see
thisfor a detailed discussion. Then there's Sibbie O'Sullivan - a high schooler when Deb and Carol were middle-schoolers. She too was swept up in the wave of mania in her native Maryland; like Deb, she witnessed an in-person
Ed Sullivan Show taping, but unlike many girls, she did not scream. Her book,
My Private Lennon: Explorations From A Fan Who Never Screamed, offers a series of essays, rich with insight and perceptive observations about her very personal fandom and what The Beatles meant to her, then and now. Leading the discussion is Dr. Allison Bumsted, who is cultivating a specialty in examinations of Beatles fandom.
An essay by Sibbie
here. Allison's review of Sibbie's book
here.