Former Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos' manuscript with Simon & Schuster was shared on Twitter after being filed in a New York lawsuit.

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Milo Yiannopoulos’ manuscript leaks—and the editor’s comments are priceless

In the words of his editor: 'DELETE UGH.'

Photo of Ana Valens 

Ana Valens

IRL

Posted on Dec 28, 2017   Updated on May 22, 2021, 6:41 am CDT

Disgraced former Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos’ self-published memoir Dangerous has been out since July, but the book’s original version for Simon & Schuster just went viral. And it’s not a pretty sight to behold.

Originally, Yiannopoulos was signed to publish Dangerous with Simon & Schuster, until comments surfaced from old interviews in which he defended pedophilia and child sexual abuse. That backlash quickly led Yiannopoulos to resign from Breitbart and lose his book deal. In turn, Yiannopoulos sued Simon & Schuster for $10 million for breach of contract. That lawsuit is still in progress after the New York State Supreme Court decided against dismissing the case.

Now, Yiannopoulos’ fight with Simon & Schuster is suddenly of interest again, as details of the lawsuit have been made public. Polis Books publisher Jason Pinter stumbled across the lawsuit online (through the New York Supreme Court and County Clerk’s e-filed cases database) and tweeted about it on Wednesday, sharing a memorandum disparaging Yiannopoulos’ writing. That’s because, in Simon & Schuster editor Mitchell Ivers’ view, the book needed major revisions, with chapters like “Why Establishment Gays Hate Me” falling under particular scrutiny for arguing things like “gay people should go back in the closet.”

“Ivers considered Plaintiff’s first draft to be, at best, a superficial work full of incendiary jokes with no coherent or sophisticated analysis of political issues of free speech,” the memorandum states. “Plainly, it was not acceptable to Simon & Schuster for publication.”

So as Pinter’s tweet went viral, Twitter users became interested in uncovering the case to learn more about Simon & Schuster’s take on Dangerous in its original form. And that’s when software engineer Sarah Mei unearthed the entire manuscript from the New York court’s website, detailing some of Yiannopoulos’ missteps.

“I didn’t read the manuscript. Just the comments,” she explained on Twitter. “They’re…amazing. Even better than the excerpts in the filing.”

In a Twitter thread capturing the highlights, Mei points to an inconsistent and juvenile first draft, where Yiannopoulos regularly disparages people of color, feminists, and queer activists while making sexual innuendos and racist jokes. All of this did not fare well with Ivers. In one case, he encouraged Yiannopoulos to delete an “irrelevant and superfluous ethnic joke.” In another, he simply wrote, “This is not the time or place for another black-dick joke.” In some cases, Ivers’ edits have a better sense of humor than Yiannopoulos’ own writing.

“All this pop psychology is hogwash,” Ivers complained in a manuscript comment. “You can’t say ugly people are drawn to the left. Have you ever seen the people at a Trump really?”

An email submitted to the court further details some of Yiannopoulos’ plans for the revisions, including more information on the “day I got banned and how it felt,” a “relationship I had with a Muslim guy,” and “letters from people I’ve fat-shamed telling me how I changed their lives.” In another email clarifying Ivers’ suggestions, he instead encourages the “alt-right” pundit to cut down on personal attacks and focus more substantially on his political beliefs, his personal feelings, and controversial subjects like targeting actress Leslie Jones.

“The feminist chapter: This seemed to be the most problematic part of our discussion, but you will need to develop a stronger argument against feminism than saying that they are ugly and sexless and have cats,” Ivers explained to Yiannopoulos. “While I understand that these repeated jokes might be effective in your lecture venues, the book will need a more intellectually bracing discussion of how contemporary feminism stifles speech.”

Of course, once the rest of Twitter unearthed the manuscript from the New York courts, feminists were quick to make fun of him.

https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/946384308914343937

In fact, the Dangerous manuscript is more of a commentary on Yiannopoulos than anything else. It shows Milo at his rawest: immature, thoughtless, and unqualified to offer intelligent discourse on American culture.

Ivers also threw some shade at Milo in the draft’s rougher sections, harping on him for using the writing cop-out: “I can think of no better explanation.”

https://twitter.com/HashtagGriswold/status/946396127250796550

Oh yes, and Ivers knows the manuscript is out there.

https://twitter.com/MitchellIvers/status/946050810483486721

And yet, Ivers proved somewhat sympathetic to Yiannopoulos’ core beliefs—or at least knew a palatable way to shape them. If his editing eventually led to a polished manuscript from the publishing house, Dangerous could have become a go-to book for the “alt-right”—a scary thing to consider.

https://twitter.com/surfbordt/status/946419042935382016

https://twitter.com/e_alexjung/status/946395153362714624

https://twitter.com/ziwe/status/946412791392624640

Dangerous’ full manuscript for Simon & Schuster is available with Ivers’ edits here. The full lawsuit’s documentation is available to look through via the New York City courts.

Disclosure: Milo Yiannopoulos was the founder of the Kernel, a publication the Daily Dot acquired in 2014. 

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*First Published: Dec 28, 2017, 12:03 pm CST

Ana Valens

Ana Valens is a reporter specializing in online queer communities, marginalized identities, and adult content creation. She is a former Daily Dot staff writer. Her work has appeared at Vice, Vox, Truthout, Bitch Media, Kill Screen, Rolling Stone, and the Toast. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and spends her free time developing queer adult games.

Ana Valens