JIMI HENDRIX

Who is Sharon Lawrence, and why did she wait so long to write this new memoir/biography of Jimi Hendrix, who died at the age of 27 in 1970, but still topped Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time? A bit of Internet browsing piques one's curiosity. Two years ago in London, Hendrix's address book, listing several of his numerous girlfriends, such as Linda Keith and Sharon Lawrence, was presented for auction. Two empty packs of Salem cigarettes smoked by Hendrix, taken from the collection of Sharon Lawrence, sold for $331.51 last November. And another Web site shows a transcript of Lawrence's testimony on behalf of Hendrix when he was tried for possession of heroin and hashish in Toronto, Canada, in December 1969.