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30 July 2010
An Open Letter to Morrissey
Dear Morrissey,
In the hope that you might consider bringing your much-rumoured memoir to The House of Eliot, I am posting this letter on the Faber website. Forlorn as this hope may be, I can only fantasise that at least you might read my letter through and consider the pleasures and prestige of being an author at Faber, the last great family-owned independent publishing house in the western hemisphere.
I have been trying to persuade you of the virtues and wisdom of this for some years now. You probably won’t remember. We even corresponded at one point via a friend of yours, an author of mine, most famous for his biography of Roxy Music which ends just as the band are getting together. You see, we love the perverse and the contrary at Faber. And we also like to think we are the custodians of twentieth-century Modernist poetry. In fact we are. Our shelves groan and bulge and spill over under the weight of Ezra, Larkin, Hughes and Heaney. And that’s just the surface; deep as it may seem. We feel very strongly that you belong in this company. To me (and to many of my colleagues) you are already in this company. It would be the fulfilment of my most pressing and persistent publishing dream to see that ‘ff’ sewn into the spine of your Life. Just any other publisher won’t do. You deserve Faber and the love we can give you. History demands it; destiny commands it.
I did receive a fax from you once to my invitation. And you responded with interest. I don’t know if at that stage you had embarked on your project but I have recently heard again that ‘it is on’.
Morrissey, the doors of our Georgian Bloomsbury-based publishing house are open to you wherever you may be: Rome, LA, Manchester. We recently published a book of Kevin Cummins’ photographs of Manchester pop which you may have seen. If you read this and would like a copy I will gladly send one to you. Perhaps it could mark the start of a beautiful friendship.
With warm wishes,
Lee Brackstone
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You’ll have more luck reforming The Smiths with Mike Joyce on vocals and Moz on the didgeridoo.
While yer waiting for Mozzer to sign, have a casual finger of our pages you lively brute.
Bark Pamphlet – as read by smokers, poets, off-spinners, mild anarchists and clumsy lions.
Let’s go!
How beautiful. I’m still bitter about his bottle to head antics after my months of waiting but I’d love to ready his book. I don’t know if he’ll be flattered at being called ‘contrary and perverse’ though.
Mr Brackstone, your case is persuasively made,but…methinks it will take a trifle more to convince the poet to sign on your dotty line.I wonder what would curry his favour? Good Luck and Sod Bless.
Dear Mr Brackstone,
Oh what fun. I was thinking of Jonathan Cape – until they moved south of the river – because now and then, they also produce some good stuff as well !
There is bound to be some excitement in the literary world and this release must be one of those moments that occur from time to time. With the greatest of respect however, and I mean this with deep sincerity, but to compare a biography of Roxy Music to that of Morrissey – the greatest musician of the century and perhaps the greatist lyricist that the world has ever EVER seen alongside Lou Reed – is somewhat lacking in a sense of the history of music.
My very best wishes to you in what is going to be an interesting ‘battle’ ahead. But take it from me, it will be won
by style and grace,
by style and grace,
by style and grace,
And some amazing photos by Linder and Ian Tilton.
Ever,
Hazard.
What a beautiful, perfect for Morrissey, scripted invite. Yes, slight innuendo inspired comments eg. “would love to see f.f stamped through your spine” or words to that effect. Beautiful classy witty words, perfectly Moz, the right man to write for, and with, the man that I worship, Morrissey, Halloed be his name.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Graham Linehan, Caz Wilson, Caz Wilson, Sean Costello, Ben Stone and others. Ben Stone said: RT @Glinner: Publishing house Faber sends open letter to Morrissey on publishing his biog: http://tiny.cc/fPjNo Rather charming! /via @BarkPamphlet [...]
Dear Lee Brackstone,
I shall henceforth be keeping an eagle eye on your blog just in case the man replies (IF he replies). You can rest assured that your virtual friends are now also chewing on their cuticles. I noticed that my own knuckles had turned white by the end of your first paragraph. One lives in hope.
Come on Moz. Like the man said, “History demands it.”
I have loved morrissey since 1983.
I am still very fond of his music but I have become a little jaded.
I will still listen to my Morrissey / Smiths on most days – but I don’t think I will be buying a book.
I was at Morrissey’s concert at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, when a fool threw a bottle of water at his head. I didn’t blame him for refusing to continue the gig – but I did expect some sort of statement afterwards.
I know a lot of people who travelled from far and wide to the concert, but it is now almost like it is ” the unspoken”.
I think that it all a bit OTT and I’ve ran an out of patience and some interest.
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To Hell With Celebrity Memoirs, Lee?
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I would never have thought it possible to have one’s dignity undermined by association with the great Faber & Faber, but so would the great, flawed Morrissey suffer if he were to allow his vanity to overrule his intellect and cave in to this embarrassing entreaty. I don’t object to the principle of an open letter, but I do object to the sentimental, pompous brutality of such phrases as “‘ff’ sewn into the spine of your Life”; “destiny commands it” etc etc. Are these not examples of everything that the names you so pointedly drop sought to expunge from poetry and from publishing?
[...] ‘An Open Letter to Morrissey‘ has been posted online at book publishing company Faber & Faber’s blog by senior editor Lee Brackstone — whose dream it is to see the former Smiths singer join ‘The House of Eliot.’ [...]
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