The Jumped-Up Pantry Boy Who Never Knew His Place

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Morrissey’s Autobiography, which Penguin published in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe last Thursday, is that it exists at all. It has been rumored roughly forever. As recently as September, the Atlantic put together a convincing case that its imminent publication was a hoax. In fact, the British pop icon’s memoir was merely delayed, reportedly over his insistence on a Penguin Classics designation—a black-border badge of literary immortality assigned, in this exceptional case, before the book’s actual birth, which is rather a royalist attitude for someone who once made a great record called The Queen Is Dead. What links other Penguin Classics authors is death and veneration; Morrissey has always longed for both, first as lead singer of the Smiths—the greatest band to emerge from the extraordinary British postpunk renaissance of the 1980s—and then in his resilient solo career. If the reports are true that he held Penguin to ransom over the Classics imprimatur and won, then Autobiography is an act of hubris at once appalling, hilarious, and diabolically brilliant, much like the writer himself. Continue reading at 'Slate'

[ Slate | 2013-10-22 00:00:00 UTC ]

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Approved biography of Thin Lizzy's Lynott due Jan 2016

Constable is to publish the first biography of Thin Lizzy’s lead singer Phil Lynott written with the approval of his estate. Publishing director Andreas Campomar bought world rights to Cowboy Song from Matthew Hamilton at Aitken Alexander Associates. Lynott was the lead singer and principal... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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