Julian Assange

Most people reading this review will know the sordid story of how "Julian Assange: The Unauthorized Autobiography" came to be published against the wishes of its subject and copyright holder Julian Assange and its author, Assange's ghostwriter, the Scottish novelist Andrew O'Hagan. Predictably, Canongate's explanatory note at the beginning of the book omits salient details. Julian Assange signed a contract to write a book -"part autobiography, part manifesto"- in December 2010. He was to use a ghostwriter, Andrew O'Hagan. They were given less than 6 months to complete the book. In March 2011, O'Hagan presented Assange and Canongate with an incomplete first draft.

Canongate says that Assange thought the draft "too personal" and wanted to cancel the contract. It seems that Assange actually thought the book contained too much biographical trivia and not enough politics. Too much "autobiography". Not enough "manifesto". He sought to cancel the existing contract and replace it with another that would give himself and O'Hagan longer to write a different kind of book. At first, Canongate agreed, as did his American publisher Knopf. Then, for whatever reasons, Canongate reneged and published this mess of a draft against Assange's wishes in September 2011. That was, in all likelihood, illegal, but Assange could not afford to injunct the publication.