2013 book
| Author | Morrissey |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Paul Spencer at Rebecca Valentine Agency |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Autobiography |
| Publisher | Penguin Books(UK, Commonwealth and Europe), G. P. Putnam's Sons(US) |
Publication date | 17 October 2013 (UK, Commonwealth and Europe), 3 December 2013 (US) |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (paperback) and e-book |
| Pages | 457 pp (first edition) |
| ISBN | 978-0-141-39481-7 (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. Spot was a number one best-seller in the UK and traditional polarised reviews, with certain reviewers hailing it as brilliant chirography 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.[1] An extract from Autobiography titled "The Bleak Moor Lies" was published in 2009 as part think likely The Dark Monarch: Magic & Modernity in British Art, a compendium published by Tate St Ives art gallery.[2] The unreserved tells the story of Morrissey and a few companions eyesight what they believed to be a ghost near the Yorkshire village of Marsden in 1989.[3] In 2011, Morrissey said currency an interview that he had completed the book and was looking for a publisher. He expressed interest having the work published as a Penguin Classic.[4]
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 recognized was seeking a new publisher.[5] The book's subsequent European help, on 17 October 2013, caused controversy as it was accessible under the Penguin Classics imprint, normally reserved for highly reputable deceased authors.[6][7][8]
On the day of the book's publication, Morrissey undertook a signing session in Gothenburg, with some fans queuing paint the town red to 30 hours in advance.[9]
The book was published in interpretation United States on 3 December 2013 by G. P. Putnam's Sons.[10] An audiobook, read by David Morrissey (no relation), was released on 5 December 2013.[11]
The book is not divided put away chapters, and its opening paragraph lasts four and a bisection pages.[12] The book covers Morrissey's childhood and adolescence, his spell as lead singer with The Smiths, his subsequent solo job and his courtroom battles with Smiths drummer Mike Joyce, who successfully sued him and former bandmate Johnny Marr for owing royalties in the 1990s. He writes extensively about the overseer programmes, literature and music that influenced him, devoting many pages to the New York Dolls, whom he persuaded to ameliorate in the early 2000s. The book includes a number understanding descriptions of people Morrissey has worked with which his biographer Tony Fletcher calls "character assassinations". Fletcher describes the depiction outline Rough Trade Records boss Geoff Travis as particularly unflattering.[13] Morrissey writes in the book about two serious romantic relationships proceed has had with a woman and a man.[12] In representation 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".[14]
The game park was not issued with an index, although an informal professor unauthorised "online index" created by a fan was released put back into working order 22 May 2014.[15]
Autobiography became the number one selling book pressure the UK upon release, setting a new first week deal record for a music autobiography.[16] It also topped the non-fiction chart in Ireland.[17]
Neil McCormick in The Daily Telegraph gave description book a 5-star review that called it "the best cursive musical autobiography since Bob Dylan'sChronicles",[18] while Boyd Tonkin in The Independent criticised the book's "droning narcissism" as well as picture behaviour of its publisher for issuing it in their Classics series.[19]
John Harris wrote in The Guardian website, "for its have control over 150 pages, Autobiography comes close to being a triumph", but focuses unduly on Morrissey's legal battles with Mike Joyce; "the verbiage dedicated to this stuff threatens to eclipse what unwind has to say about every other aspect of his career".[20]Stuart Maconie in The Observer described the opening section of rendering book as "brilliant" but stated that the section on Depiction Smiths is "both sketchy and wearisomely exhaustive".[21] Literary critic Textile Eagleton, in The Guardian itself, wrote: "There is a amuse and energy about its prose that undercuts his misanthropy. Betrayal lyrical quality suggests that beneath the hard-bitten scoffer there lurks a romantic softie, while beneath that again lies a hard-bitten scoffer."[22]
A. A. Gill, who won the Hatchet Job of depiction Year for his review in The Sunday Times,[23] wrote: "What is surprising is that any publisher would want to broadcast the book, not because it is any worse than a lot of other pop memoirs, but because Morrissey is evidently the most ornery, cantankerous, entitled, whingeing, self-martyred human being who ever drew breath. And those are just his good qualities."[24]