Autobiography (Morrissey)
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| Author | Morrissey |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Autobiography |
| Publisher | Penguin Books (UK, Commonwealth and Europe), G. P. Putnam's Sons (US) |
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Publication date
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17 October 2013 (UK, Commonwealth and Europe), 3 December 2013 (US) |
| Media type | Print (paperback) and e-book |
| Pages | 457 pp (first edition) |
| ISBN | (first edition) |
Autobiography is a book by the British singer-songwriter Morrissey, published in October 2013.
Controversially, it was published under the Penguin Classics imprint. It was a number one best-seller in the UK and received polarised reviews, with certain reviewers hailing it as brilliant writing and others decrying it as overwrought and self-indulgent.
Morrissey mentioned that he had begun work on his autobiography in a radio interview in 2002. An extract from Autobiography titled "The Bleak Moor Lies" was published in 2009 as part of The Dark Monarch: Magic & Modernity in British Art, a compendium published by Tate St Ives art gallery. The extract tells the story of Morrissey and a few companions seeing what they believed to be a ghost near the Yorkshire village of Marsden in 1989. In 2011, Morrissey said in an interview that he had completed the book and was looking for a publisher. He expressed interest having the book published as a Penguin Classic.
A few days before the book's apparently scheduled, but unannounced, release on 16 September 2013, Morrissey issued a statement explaining that a content dispute with Penguin Books meant that publication would be delayed and that he was seeking a new publisher. The book's subsequent European release, on 17 October 2013, caused controversy as it was published under the Penguin Classics imprint, normally reserved for highly esteemed deceased authors.
On the day of the book's publication, Morrissey undertook a signing session in Gothenburg, with some fans queuing up to 30 hours in advance.
The book was published in the United States on 3 December 2013 by G. P. Putnam's Sons. An audiobook, read by David Morrissey, was released on 5 December 2013.
The book is not divided into chapters and its opening paragraph lasts four-and-a-half pages. The book covers Morrissey's childhood and adolescence, his period as lead singer with The Smiths, his subsequent solo career and his courtroom battles with Smiths drummer Mike Joyce, who successfully sued him for unpaid royalties in the 1990s. He writes extensively about the television, literature and music that influenced him, devoting many pages to the New York Dolls, whom he persuaded to reform in the 2000s. The book includes a number of descriptions of people Morrissey has worked with which his biographer Tony Fletcher calls "character assassinations". Fletcher describes the depiction of Rough Trade Records boss Geoff Travis as particularly unflattering. Morrissey writes in the book about two serious romantic relationships he has had with a woman and a man. In the days following the book's release, he issued a statement emphasising that he did not consider himself to be gay: "I am attracted to humans. But, of course, not many".
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