The Guardian reports that Yiannopoulos, self-style political provocateur and former editor at alt-right website Breitbart News, and the publishing house filed documents on February 20 requesting that the case be dismissed “without costs or fees to either party”.

Yiannopoulos received a reported $250,000 advance from Simon & Schuster in January, 2017 for his autobiography, entitled ‘Dangerous’ but the publishers pulled the book in February of that year after a recording surfaced in which Yiannopoulos appeared to advocate sex between “younger boys” and older men.

The failed journalist was also fired from his position as news editor at Breitbart over the comments after coworkers threatened to quit en masse if he was not removed.

Yiannopoulos later disputed that he advocated child abuse, saying that his comments were “stupidly worded” and taken out of context.

He went on to self-publish the ‘Dangerous’ and dismissed media reports of low sales – which revealed that he only sold 18,268 copies of his book in the US and 152 in the UK – as “fake news”.

As part of the the lawsuit, Simon & Schuster released documents revealing embarrassingly scathing editors notes on the poor quality of Yiannopoulos’ manuscript, like: “stronger argument against feminism than saying that they are ugly and sexless and have cats” and that another chapter needs “a better central thesis than the notion that gay people should go back in the closet”.

“Throughout the book, your best points seem to be lost in a sea of self-aggrandisement and scattershot thinking,” wrote editor Mitchell Ivers. “Careful that the egotistical boasting … doesn’t make you seem juvenile.”

“We are pleased that Mr Yiannopoulos’ lawsuit has been withdrawn,” Simon & Schuster said in a statement this week.

“We stand by our decision to terminate the publication of Mr Yiannopoulos’ book.”

For his part, Yiannopoulos has claimed the termination of the lawsuit – which he instigated – as a success. “I cost Simon and Schuster a fortune in legal fees and gave them one hell of a bloody nose,” he wrote on Facebook.

“And I proved that libertarians and conservatives don’t need liberal publishers to succeed. My book was a New York Times bestseller for five weeks and made me millions.

“The era of all-powerful publishers and cowering authors is over. We can do it without them!”