The fabled Morrissey memoir: How soon is now?

Beloved singer Morrissey has been teasing fans for close to two years with news that he’s penned a 660-page memoir. The catch is, it doesn’t seem to have a publisher -- or didn’t, until an exchange at a concert this week.

Is the Morrissey memoir really coming to shelves? How long will it be -- how soon is now?

At a concert in New Jersey on Tuesday, Morrissey appeared to nod in assent when asked whethre the book would be published by Penguin Classics. In April 2011, Morrissey told BB4’s Front Row that Penguin Classics was the imprint he’d most like to publish his book. A year earlier, editor Lee Brackstone had posted an open letter to the singer online, asking him to let his company, Faber & Faber, publish the memoir. As recently as July 2011, Morrissey seemed to have someone ready to publish the book; he told Billboard he was expecting it to be on shelves by the end of 2012.

After Tuesday’s concert, Capital New York checked with Penguin in the U.S. and UK, but neither was aware of a planned Morrissey memoir. “Here’s hoping,” a British representative said, adding, “Nothing on the schedule at this time.”

Morrissey, who was the frontman for The Smiths before embarking on a solo career, has been both a high-profile and enigmatic figure. Abstinent and vegetarian, yes. Endowed with a nickname, yes: Moz. Gay or straight or bisexual? Impossible to say.

Could a memoir explain these things? Maybe. Or maybe not. What difference does it make?

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