Morrissey’s Autobiography being published at last, maybe

The long-in-the-works autobiography that Morrissey talked about having more or less finished in early 2011 – entitled, naturally, Autobiography – was due for publication in the UK this week through Penguin, with bookshops across the country whipping their Truman Capote sections back into shape for the Mozmoir’s 16 September arrival. As obsessive Morrissey fans (edited for redundancy) no doubt noticed, however, Monday came and went with nary a swoon nor a shoplift.

That’s because the book’s publication date was pre-empted by a terse statement on True to You – the Morrissey fan site that has become a vessel for official communiqués – reading simply: ‘Although Morrissey’s Autobiography was set to be available throughout the UK on September 16th, a last-minute content disagreement between Penguin Books and Morrissey has caused the venture to collapse. No review copies were printed, and Morrissey is now in search of a new publisher.’ This, of course, despite Morrissey already knowing he’s unloveable, they didn’t have to tell him, message received loud and clear. Anyway, it was accompanied by this amazing image, which is probably just a mock-up, but a boy can dream.

So that, as they say, seemed like that, with Morrissey apparently having as much luck with publishers as he’s had of late with record labels. The following day, however, a similarly brief clarification also appeared on True to You, saying: ‘The publication of Morrissey’s Autobiography remains with Penguin Books. This is a deal for the UK and Europe, but Morrissey has no contract with a publisher for the U.S. or any other territory. As of 13 September, Morrissey and Penguin (UK) remain determined to publish within the next few weeks.’

So first of all, YAAAAAASSSSS, obviously. Secondly, it remains unclear whether the initial statement was a simple case of someone along the way having the wrong end of the stick, or if Morrissey threw a strop in public and it actually worked. Either way, if you can bear to loosen your grasp on your prized copy of The World Won’t Listen for as long as it takes you to read 600+ pages, it’s time to stretch out and wait.

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Responses

  1. Whoever writes these little posts on True To You is definitely on something. If they “remain determined to publish within the next few weeks” then the books should be available to pre-order by now. But, it isn’t showing on Amazon (and there’s been no sign of it in the Penguin Press Office Newsletter either).

    That cover must be made up too – Penguin can’t set a precedent of publishing a new book in the Classics list, just for Moz, because he says it’s a classic.

    I suggest ignoring anything about this book that doesn’t come through normal book trade channels, there’s been too much rubbish written about it already.

      1. Well frack me! I look forward to the Penguin Classics edition of David Beckham’s 8th volume of autobiography in due course 😉

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