Just Kids by Patti Smith (2010)

 

The first of Patti Smith's celebrated memoirs recounts her life as a daughter, artist, muse, musician, and lover. I can't praise this book enough for its rugged yet poetic and poignant account of her life in New York City in the early 1970s and her intense relationship -- they were lovers, friends and co-creators -- with Robert Mapplethorpe. Her latest, M Train (2015), won a National Book Award.

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Pictured are Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe on a hot day they shared at Coney Island. They both considered this day a treasured highlight in their relationship.

 

I took this photo (detail) with my iPhone8 directly from the full version, which appears in the frontispiece of the paperback version of Just Kids and is credited as "courtesy of the Patti Smith Archive." 

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