The books' British publisher, Tom Maschler, has owned the material for a half century. Sotheby's is selling it today.
The auction house says it's the largest private collection of Lennon's work to come to the market.
Among the highlights in the 89-piece collection is a cartoon of a boy with six birds. It appeared in "A Spaniard in the Works," published in 1965.
The drawing was used 30 years later as the cover for the Beatles' release of "Free as a Bird," written by Lennon in 1977. It has a pre-sale estimate of USD 12,000 to USD 15,000.
