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Patti Smith

Author of Just Kids

121+ Works 10,161 Members 378 Reviews 29 Favorited

About the Author

Patti Smith was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 30, 1946. She is a singer-songwriter, writer and visual artist. She gained recognition in the 1970s for her revolutionary mergence of poetry and rock. Her album Horses has been hailed as one of the top 100 albums of all time. She has recorded show more twelve albums. In 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She has written several books including Witt, Babel, Woolgathering, The Coral Sea, Auguries of Innocence, M Train, and Just Kids, which won the Nonfiction category of the National Book Award in 2010. Her drawings, photographs, and installations have been shown at numerous venues including the Andy Warhol Museum and the Fondation Cartier Pour l'Art Contemporain in Paris. In 2005, she was awarded the title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture, which is the highest honor awarded to an artist by the French Republic. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:

Not to be confused with Patty Smyth.

Image credit: flavorwire.com

Series

Works by Patti Smith

Just Kids (2010) 5,444 copies
M Train (2015) — Author — 1,457 copies
Year of the Monkey (2019) 601 copies
Devotion (2017) 388 copies
Woolgathering (1992) 318 copies
Early Work: 1970-1979 (1994) 226 copies
Auguries of Innocence: Poems (2005) 188 copies
Babel (1978) 179 copies
The Coral Sea (1996) 173 copies
A Book of Days (2022) 164 copies
Horses (1975) 84 copies
Seventh Heaven (1972) 69 copies
Witt (1973) 56 copies
Easter (1978) — Artist — 46 copies
Ha! Ha! Houdini (1977) 30 copies
Wave (1979) 27 copies
Strange Messenger: The Work of Patti Smith (2002) — Artist — 26 copies
Banga (2012) 26 copies
Patti Smith, Land 250 (2008) 25 copies
Radio Ethiopia (1976) 22 copies
Gone Again (1996) 18 copies
Twelve (2007) 17 copies
More Lifeways (1997) 17 copies
Trois (2008) 16 copies
Trampin' (2004) — Artist — 14 copies
Land (1975-2002) (2002) 13 copies
Peace and Noise (1999) 12 copies
Gung Ho (2000) 11 copies
The Night (1969) 11 copies
The New Jerusalem (2018) 10 copies
Linha M (2016) 8 copies
Poniedziałkowe dzieci (2010) 8 copies
Robert Mapplethorpe (1987) 5 copies
Cowboy Mouth (1971) 4 copies
L’année du singe (2020) 4 copies
Great lyricists : Patti Smith (2008) — Lyricist — 3 copies
Hingabe (2019) 3 copies
Outside Society (2011) 3 copies
Patti Smith : canzoni (1900) 3 copies
Patti Smith songbook (1977) 3 copies
Peradam (2020) — Artist — 2 copies
L'anno della scimmia (2020) 2 copies
Patti Smith Group (1977) 2 copies
Patti Smith Memoir (1999) 2 copies
A Small Entreaty — Author — 2 copies
The Peyote Dance (2019) — Artist — 2 copies
Arista Years 1975 - 2000 (2011) 2 copies
Canzoni 2 copies
Work Songs 2 copies
Voz M 2 copies
Banga (Special Edition) — Author — 2 copies
A Normal Day 2 copies
"Rien que des gamins" (2018) 1 copy
Gone again 1 copy
Document 1 copy
Set Free 1 copy
The Fruit of Her Womb (2011) 1 copy
Killer Road: A Tribute to Nico (2016) — Artist — 1 copy
Mummer Love (2019) — Artist — 1 copy
Uns marrecs (2022) 1 copy
Om å skrive 1 copy
Buch der Tage (2022) 1 copy
Poesie rock 1 copy
Live in Germany 1979 (2012) 1 copy
Oddanost (2018) 1 copy
Ya pasu oblaka (2013) 1 copy

Associated Works

Wuthering Heights (1847) — Introduction, some editions — 51,616 copies
Little Women (1868) — Foreword, some editions — 26,256 copies
The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics) (1827) — Introduction, some editions — 1,292 copies
A Season in Hell / The Drunken Boat (1961) — Preface, some editions — 973 copies
The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (1999) — Contributor — 593 copies
Acid for the Children: A Memoir (2018) — Foreword — 373 copies
Astragal (1965) — Introduction, some editions — 278 copies
Flowers (1990) — Foreword, some editions — 164 copies
The Best American Poetry 2008 (2008) — Contributor — 135 copies
The One Inside (2017) — Foreword — 107 copies
Baron Bagge (1982) — Foreword, some editions — 79 copies
The Divorce (2021) — Foreword, some editions — 52 copies
Angel City and Other Plays (1977) — Contributor — 39 copies
An Accidental Autobiography: The Selected Letters (2003) — Foreword, some editions — 38 copies
Wonders: Writings and Drawings for the Child in Us All (1980) — Contributor — 18 copies
Socialism [2010 film] (2011) 7 copies
Sugar, alcohol, & meat [sound recording] (1980) — Contributor — 2 copies
Robert Mapplethorpe. On the Edge (2016) — Contributor — 2 copies
In'hui, No.9 — Contributor — 1 copy
CUZ 3 — Author — 1 copy
Tooth of Crime | Action | Cowboy Mouth (2002) — Contributor — 1 copy
Sixteen Candles [original movie soundtrack] (1984) — Artist — 1 copy
No Alternative [sound recording] — Contributor — 1 copy

Tagged

1001 books (229) 19th century (1,517) American (248) American literature (411) art (223) autobiography (296) biography (334) British (593) British literature (657) Bronte (287) children's (345) Civil War (298) classic (3,208) classic literature (437) classics (3,094) ebook (347) England (616) English (360) English literature (710) family (484) fiction (6,542) gothic (796) historical fiction (428) Kindle (343) literature (1,467) love (402) memoir (816) music (684) non-fiction (559) novel (1,130) own (374) poetry (1,238) read (916) romance (1,329) sisters (326) to-read (2,441) unread (277) Victorian (456) women (232) young adult (268)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Smith, Patti
Legal name
Smith, Patricia Lee
Birthdate
1946-12-30
Gender
female
Nationality
USA
Birthplace
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Places of residence
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
New Jersey, USA
New York, New York, USA
St. Clair Shores, Michigan, USA
Education
Deptford Township High School
Occupations
singer-songwriter
poet
artist
writer
Relationships
Smith, Fred Sonic (husband)
Awards and honors
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2005)
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2007)
Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (2022)
Short biography
Patti Smith is an American singer-songwriter and poet. She was influential in the birth of punk rock with her 1975 debut album "Horses". Called "Godmother of Punk" she integrated the beat poetry performance style with garage rock. Her allusions introduced American teens to 19th century French poetry, while her "unladylike" language defied the disco era. Smith is most widely known for the song "Because the Night", which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen and reached number 13 on Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Disambiguation notice
Not to be confused with Patty Smyth.

Members

Reviews

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

“Reading rocker Smith’s account of her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, it’s hard not to believe in fate. How else to explain the chance encounter that threw them together, allowing both to blossom? Quirky and spellbinding.” -- People

It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation.

Patti Smith would evolve as a poet and performer, and Robert Mapplethorpe would direct his highly provocative style toward photography. Bound in innocence and enthusiasm, they traversed the city from Coney Island to Forty-Second Street, and eventually to the celebrated round table of Max’s Kansas City, where the Andy Warhol contingent held court. In 1969, the pair set up camp at the Hotel Chelsea and soon entered a community of the famous and infamous, the influential artists of the day and the colorful fringe. It was a time of heightened awareness, when the worlds of poetry, rock and roll, art, and sexual politics were colliding and exploding. In this milieu, two kids made a pact to take care of each other. Scrappy, romantic, committed to create, and fueled by their mutual dreams and drives, they would prod and provide for one another during the hungry years.

Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City during the late sixties and seventies and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions. A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artists’ ascent, a prelude to fame.
… (more)
 
Flagged
petervanbeveren | 237 other reviews | Mar 18, 2024 |
I found this to be a nice book to hang with- It’s not as powerful as some of the things that she writes, but it feels nice and intimate. I love her poetry in the way her words flow, you don’t get that in most books written nowadays
 
Flagged
alanac50 | 9 other reviews | Feb 27, 2024 |
Not as interesting as I thought it would be. A shallow and uncomplicated (if lovely) picture of the kind of perfect boho life everyone wishes they'd lived in the '60s. Didn't quite manage to finish it, but I'm counting it anyway.
 
Flagged
caedocyon | 237 other reviews | Feb 22, 2024 |
I started this book and got sidetracked with work and other things, so I really only read 90% of it in one day, today.

Think “Through the Looking Glass” set in 2016 United States of America, forged with quintessential Patti Smith wordsmithing, and you have a glimpse at the lens through which Ms. Smith chose to reflect on January 2016 to January 2017, the Chinese Year of the Monkey. With several direct references to Lewis Carroll, 2016 unfolds in the exquisite prose of a writer who has lived a far more interesting life than I have, and is far more talented than the vast majority of us could ever hope to be. Her personal heartaches and losses are interspersed with observations about the 2016 presidential election and the inauguration of “the insufferable yellow-haired confidence man.” She reflects on the passage of her 70th birthday, the toxicity in politics in general (“No matter which way I stepped or whatever plane I was on, it was still the Year of the Monkey. I was still moving within an atmosphere of artificial brightness with corrosive edges, the hyperreality of a polarizing pre=election mudslide, an avalanche of toxicity infiltrating every outpost.” ), voter apathy (“I had bad feelings about an election in the Year of the Monkey. Don’t worry, everyone said, the majority rules. Not so, I retaliated,the silent rule and it will be decided by them, those who do not vote. And who can blame them, when it’s all a pack of lies, a tainted election lined in waste?” Or “Twenty-four percent of the population had elected the worst of ourselves to represent the other seventy-six percent. All hail our American apathy...”) This slim book — only 171 pages — is crisp cultural commentary and ever gorgeous prose.… (more)
 
Flagged
bschweiger | 23 other reviews | Feb 4, 2024 |

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Statistics

Works
121
Also by
27
Members
10,161
Popularity
#2,337
Rating
4.0
Reviews
378
ISBNs
283
Languages
23
Favorited
29

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