Winner of the 2010 Non-Fiction National Book Award Patti Smith's evocative, honest and moving coming-of-age story of her extraordinary relationship with the artist Robert Mapplethorpe
A prelude to fame, Just Kids recounts the friendship of two young
artists--Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe - whose passion fueled
their lifelong pursuit of art.
In 1967, a chance meeting between
two young people led to a romance and a lifelong friendship that would
carry each to international success never dreamed of. The backdrop is
Brooklyn, Chelsea Hotel, Max's Kansas City, Scribner's Bookstore, Coney
Island, Warhol's Factory and the whole city resplendent. Among their
friends, literary lights, musicians and artists such as Harry Smith,
Bobby Neuwirth, Allen Ginsberg, Sandy Daley, Sam Shepherd, William
Burroughs, etc. It was a heightened time politically and culturally; the
art and music worlds exploding and colliding. In the midst of all this
two kids made a pact to always care for one another. Scrappy, romantic,
committed to making art, they prodded and provided each other with faith
and confidence during the hungry years--the days of cous-cous and
lettuce soup.
Just Kids begins as a love story and ends
as an elegy. Beautifully written, this is a profound portrait of two
young artists, often hungry, sated only by art and experience. And an
unforgettable portrait of New York, her rich and poor, hustlers and
hellions, those who made it and those whose memory lingers near.
'A tender, harrowing, often hilarious portrait of young lovers forging their paths in an eccentric milieu of Beat poets, Warhol socialites, and transvestites, rock stars and artists ... Much has been written about that time, but Just Kids offers new insight'
