The cover of Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography, “Born to Run.”
A press release that showed up today on brucespringsteen.net announced that The Boss will release an autobiography, “Born to Run,” on Sept. 27, which will be four days after his 67th birthday.
According to the press release, Springsteen has been writing it for seven years. “With disarming candor,” it says, “he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work, and shows us why the song ‘Born to Run’ reveals more than we previously realized.”
The press release includes the following quote from the book: “Writing about yourself is a funny business. But in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind. In these pages, I’ve tried to do this.”
According to the press release, Springsteen began the book after performing at the Super Bowl in 2009. In 2013, Robert Santelli interviewed him for Grammy.com, and asked about the possibility of a book. Springsteen replied:
As for the memoirs, I got some stuff I’ve worked on, but I don’t have anything fixed. I worked on it for a while, then the music came along and the tour came along. There doesn’t seem to be an urgency to return to it at the moment. It’ll present itself and I’ll see what happens.
According to the New York Post, Springsteen received an advance of more than $10 million for the book.
Update: At 9 a.m. this morning, Springsteen’s publicity company, Shore Fire, issued the following press release:
New York, NY, February 11, 2016 — Simon & Schuster is proud to announce the world-wide publication of Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography, Born to Run, which will be released internationally on September 27, 2016. The work will be published in hardcover, ebook, and audio editions by Simon & Schuster in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and India, and rights have already been sold to publishers in nine countries.
Mr. Springsteen has been privately writing the autobiography over the past seven years. He began work in 2009, after performing with the E Street Band at the Super Bowl’s halftime show.
In Born to Run, Mr. Springsteen describes growing up in Freehold, New Jersey amid the “poetry, danger, and darkness” that fueled his imagination. He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E Street Band. With disarming candor, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work, and shows us why the song “Born to Run” reveals more than we previously realized.
“Writing about yourself is a funny business,” Mr. Springsteen notes in his book. “But in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind. In these pages, I’ve tried to do this.”
“This is the book we’ve been hoping for,” said Jonathan Karp, publisher of Simon & Schuster. “Readers will see their own lives in Bruce Springsteen’s extraordinary story, just as we recognize ourselves in his songs.” Simon & Schuster acquired Born to Run in an exclusive submission from Mr. Springsteen’s legal representatives, Allen Grubman and Jonathan Ehrlich of the law firm Grubman Shire & Meiselas, P.C.. Simon & Schuster previously published Mr. Springsteen’s illustrated book with Frank Caruso, Outlaw Pete, in 2014.
The international publishers of Born to Run are Editions Albin Michel in France; Mondadori in Italy; Heyne in Germany; Natur & Kultur in Sweden; Spectrum in the Netherlands, Politkens in Denmark; Cappelen Damn in Norway; Otava in Finland; and Penguin Random Spain.
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