Curious discrepancies between the Penguin UK/Putnam US editions of Autobiography

An anonymous person writes:

I picked up my copy of the American edition of Autobiography today and started reading through it, and when I reached the part of the book where Jake is introduced, I noticed that his picture was missing. I didn't really think anything of it, but then I realized that his section of the book is heavily edited, with certain paragraphs detailing the relationship truncated considerably and some lines and anecdotes omitted entirely. What's really strange is how trivial some of these changes are; for example, in the UK version of the book, Morrissey describes a night out with Jake and Chrissie Hynde at a Battersea pub, but in the American version it is only Morrissey with Chrissie.

This part of the book contains the only editorial differences between the UK/US editions I've noticed so far, though I haven't read through it all so there could be more. However, I find these changes very odd and they stymy the flow of Morrissey's prose somewhat, to the extent that it actually lessens the emotional intensity of what I consider to be one of the most moving sections of the book. I'm wondering if the press frenzy that followed the publication of the book made either Jake or Morrissey uncomfortable, which led to these revisions. Obviously, this is purely conjecture as there's no way I could possibly know for sure. I just can't really think of any other explanation.

Has anyone else noticed this?


UPDATE Dec. 4:

joe frady also adds:

The British Hard Version is similarly trimmed. No 'walked in and stayed for 2 years, or 'I becomes we'. No British Airways brothers/lovers anecdote, whole Dublin/Dr Anthony Clare/Sherborne episode excised, no tea in the bath, someone to answer the telephone, etc. No teenage pic neither. And he drinks only with Chrissie in the British Flag pub.



Media coverage:


 
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I'm not gay but this is what I would call...A dick move.

I very much doubt Jake Walters objected to the original version, which was nothing but positive about him. if he did he wouldn't be still making tweetjokes about their affair. It's obvious he loves the man.
Yes, looks like this... sucks. The lack of balls is distressing...
God knows why Morrissey decided to rewrite the past, and decided his love for Jake wasn't worthy of being mentioned after all.

If he can't love men and he can't love women, I hope he got himself hamster...lol.
 
I'm not gay but this is what I would call...A dick move.

I very much doubt Jake Walters objected to the original version, which was nothing but positive about him. if he did he wouldn't be still making tweetjokes about their affair. It's obvious he loves the man.
Yes, looks like this... sucks. The lack of balls is distressing...
God knows why Morrissey decided to rewrite the past, and decided his love for Jake wasn't worthy of being mentioned after all.

If he can't love men and he can't love women, I hope he got himself hamster...lol.

I don't think the edit has anything to do with fear of offending conservative Americans, as one person suggested. It seems it has to do with being traumatized when labeled homosexual by the press when the paperback was released. He did a mini-panic... posting the humasexual comment on TTY... a little PR work, of sorts. So, in order to avoid a repeat, he has simply edited that fact from the hardback edition book. It is a shame, I agree. Sad that he still cares that others may label him gay. It is absurd in this day and age. Plus the damage was done already. The cat is out of the bag. Just makes him look silly editing his homosexual affair out of his autobiography.

Why is Morrissey so ashamed of being gay? He can throw terms like fourth sex, asexual, celibate, and humasexual out there to get people off the trail. But it doesn't change who he is. He is a gay male.

Would Oscar Wilde behave this way if he were alive today? I don't think so. I think he would wear his 'gayness' on his sleeve. Be proud to be gay. And let everyone know it.
 
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Why is Morrissey so ashamed of being gay? He can throw terms like fourth sex, asexual, celibate, and humasexual out there to get people off the trail. But it doesn't change who he is. He is a gay male.

"Tina"
 

Token Tina. A plant to distract from the truth... that he is gay. It wasn't even to appease the female fans. Yes, some want to maintain the hetero fantasy. Most don't care that he is gay. Morrissey cares that he is gay. Why?

Now that the relationship with Jake has been edited out, he reads as celibate. For I don't think for a second that Tina was his lover. Not the way she was described. Sounds like a mother figure. Steady? What happened to sexy? Women are not sexy to Moz unless they are six foot and rain thin supermodels married to someone else.

Moz can edit out his gay affair. But all the homoeroticism is still there from his childhood on.
 
I don't think the edit has anything to do with fear of offending conservative Americans, as one person suggested. It seems it has to do with being traumatized when labeled homosexual by the press when the paperback was released. He did a mini-panic... posting the humasexual comment on TTY... a little PR work, of sorts.

God knows. Bottom (ha!) line is, if Jake W's ok with it, fine, it will just upset other gay people a bit, who will see it as a retreat, I imagine.

It's still a picture of his on the cover so maybe they decided together to present the facts differently and they sort of made a deal. Somehow I have this totally different picture of Jake W. in my head, as not the kind of guy who'd take something like that lying down (ha!), but maybe he's ok with the whole "constantly bullshitting people" theme. Which seems to be all what M's life has been about, really...

Meanwhile, in England, a young athlete has just made his gay relationship public, and looks like it's a big thing. Funny, at nineteen, he can take the pressure that Morrissey can't take...

I think Morrissey's fans should have a collection and get him a pair for Christmas.
A pair of what? Well, gloves, naturally! Let him get what he so obviously wants...
 
Morrissey cares that he is gay. Why?

Now that the relationship with Jake has been edited out, he reads as celibate. For I don't think for a second that Tina was his lover. Not the way she was described. Sounds like a mother figure. Steady? What happened to sexy? Women are not sexy to Moz unless they are six foot and rain thin supermodels married to someone else.

I have huge doubts as well...

But ultimately it doesn't matter; it's the people this is about it should matter to. It's their life he's talking about in a best-seller. Theirs is as important as his. If they don't mind the way they're presented, then there's no problem...
Still, it's funny to imagine he and Jake might still see each other from time to time and that we'd be supposed to think it's for artistic purposes...

Goes to show... Relationships and love are just pawns in Morrissey's game. A bit of an eye opener, isn't it.

Morrissey has only one love. He's married to Money. They're very happy. He is It, and It is He...
 
Reported & will keep all updates housed within this article. Disheartening, whatever the reason may be. http://2020k.wordpress.com/2013/12/...tish-hardcover-editions-of-his-autobiography/

Thanks.

- - - Updated - - -

God knows. Bottom (ha!) line is, if Jake W's ok with it, fine, it will just upset other gay people a bit, who will see it as a retreat, I imagine.

It's still a picture of his on the cover so maybe they decided together to present the facts differently and they sort of made a deal. Somehow I have this totally different picture of Jake W. in my head, as not the kind of guy who'd take something like that lying down (ha!), but maybe he's ok with the whole "constantly bullshitting people" theme. Which seems to be all what M's life has been about, really...

Meanwhile, in England, a young athlete has just made his gay relationship public, and looks like it's a big thing. Funny, at nineteen, he can take the pressure that Morrissey can't take...

I think Morrissey's fans should have a collection and get him a pair for Christmas.
A pair of what? Well, gloves, naturally! Let him get what he so obviously wants...

Yes. :D
 
Well, he got out of the closet briefly, but I guess he's gone back inside now!
 
Just saw this mention of this new story online....they probably saw it here first!

http://www.factmag.com/2013/12/04/m...dly-edited-out-of-us-copies-of-autobiography/

Here is a comment posted under the article...

"I'm guessing that you got this from Morrissey-solo. Can you give them credit for this info? It's a pretty devoted, if fractious, group over there."

Yes, if they don't credit Solo, we will have the author's head on a plate, by suppertime. :lbf:

- - - Updated - - -

Well, he got out of the closet briefly, but I guess he's gone back inside now!

It's a shame that he is ashamed. :(
 
Token Tina. A plant to distract from the truth... that he is gay. It wasn't even to appease the female fans. Yes, some want to maintain the hetero fantasy. Most don't care that he is gay. Morrissey cares that he is gay. Why?

Now that the relationship with Jake has been edited out, he reads as celibate. For I don't think for a second that Tina was his lover. Not the way she was described. Sounds like a mother figure. Steady? What happened to sexy? Women are not sexy to Moz unless they are six foot and rain thin supermodels married to someone else.

Moz can edit out his gay affair. But all the homoeroticism is still there from his childhood on.

I've just been reading 'Morrissey in Conversation', the collection of interviews. In the interview with Lynn Barber in 2002 for The Observer, she asks him if he ever has relationships. 'Not physical relationships, no. I mean there are some people on this planet who aren't obsessed with sex, and I'm one of them. I'm not interested. And I'm not cloaking something. I'm not going somewhere under cover of night and existing in some wild, secretive way. I wasn't interested when I was 17, I wasn't interested when I was 27, I was less interested when I was 37 and I'm even less interested now.'

So if he is being truthful in this interview, then neither his relationship with Jake nor Tina was sexual. So many contradictions....what do we believe? Is he genuinely asexual and only enjoys platonic romantic relationships, or just filled with self disgust over his homosexual yearnings? If he wasn't so slippery and evasive about his sexuality nobody would care...it's just that niggling suspicion that maybe we're being deceived for no apparent reason......
 
It's unlikely he's ashamed, and furthermore would so blatantly alter his work for that reason when doing so would only advertise and accentuate his supposed shame and regret.

I think you people should assume he has his own reasons for the revisions which may be beyond the scope of your collective...for lack of a better word, mind.
 
It's unlikely he's ashamed, and furthermore would so blatantly alter his work for that reason when doing so would only advertise and accentuate his supposed shame and regret.

I think you people should assume he has his own reasons for the revisions which may be beyond the scope of your collective...for lack of a better word, mind.

Well said!
 
It's unlikely he's ashamed, and furthermore would so blatantly alter his work for that reason when doing so would only advertise and accentuate his supposed shame and regret.

I think you people should assume he has his own reasons for the revisions which may be beyond the scope of your collective...for lack of a better word, mind.

Enlighten us. What could those reasons be? Everything has a reason. Why would he edit the relationship details out of the second print?
 
If wasn't 'ashamed', then why did he rush out a statement on True to You desperately insisting he wasn't homosexual?
 
Mountain
Molehill
You do the math. :squiffy:
 

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