Synopsis
National Bestseller
Featuring a new postscript including five new photos from Patti Smith
From the National Book Award-winning author of Just Kids: an unforgettable odyssey of a legendary artist, told through the caf�s and haunts she has worked in around the world. It is a book Patti Smith has described as "a roadmap to my life."
M Train begins in the tiny Greenwich Village caf� where Smith goes every morning for black coffee, ruminates on the world as it is and the world as it was, and writes in her notebook. Through prose that shifts fluidly between dreams and reality, past and present, we travel to Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul in Mexico; to the fertile moon terrain of Iceland; to a ramshackle seaside bungalow in New York's Far Rockaway that Smith acquires just before Hurricane Sandy hits; to the West 4th Street subway station, filled with the sounds of the Velvet Underground after the death of Lou Reed; and to the graves of Genet, Plath, Rimbaud, and Mishima.
Woven throughout are reflections on the writer's craft and on artistic creation. Here, too, are singular memories of Smith's life in Michigan and the irremediable loss of her husband, Fred Sonic Smith.
Braiding despair with hope and consolation, illustrated with her signature Polaroids, M Train is a meditation on travel, detective shows, literature, and coffee. It is a powerful, deeply moving book by one of the most remarkable multiplatform artists at work today.
Review
Patti Smith is a writer, performer, and visual artist. She gained recognition in the 1970s for her revolutionary merging of poetry and rock. She has released twelve albums, including Horses, which has been hailed as one of the top one hundred albums of all time by Rolling Stone.
Smith had her first exhibit of drawings at the Gotham Book Mart in 1973 and has been represented by the Robert Miller Gallery since 1978. Her books include Just Kids, winner of the National Book Award in 2010, Wītt, Babel, Woolgathering, The Coral Sea, and Auguries of Innocence.
In 2005, the French Ministry of Culture awarded Smith the title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, the highest honor given to an artist by the French Republic. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.
Smith married the musician Fred Sonic Smith in Detroit in 1980. They had a son, Jackson, and a daughter, Jesse. Smith resides in New York City.In 1965 I had come to New York City from South Jersey just to roam around, and nothing seemed more romantic than to write poetry in a Greenwich Village caf�. I finally got the courage to enter Caff� Dante on MacDougal Street. The walls were covered with printed murals of the city of Florence and scenes from The Divine Comedy.
A few years later I would sit by a low window that looked out into a small alley, reading Mrabet's The Beach Caf�. A young fish-seller named Driss meets a reclusive, uncongenial codger who has a caf� with only one table and one chair on a rocky stretch of shore near Tangier. The slow-moving atmosphere surrounding the caf� captivated me. Like Driss, I dreamed of opening a place of my own: the Caf� Nerval, a small haven where poets and travelers might find the simplicity of asylum.
I imagined threadbare Persian rugs on wide-planked floors, two long wood tables with benches, a few smaller tables, and an oven for baking bread. No music no menus. Just silence black coffee olive oil fresh mint brown bread. Photographs adorning the walls: a melancholic portrait of the caf�'s namesake, and a smaller image of the forlorn poet Paul Verlaine in his overcoat, slumped before a glass of absinthe.
In 1978 I came into a little money and was able to pay a security deposit toward the lease of a one-story building on East Tenth Street. It had once been a beauty parlor but stood empty save for three white ceiling fans and a few folding chairs. My brother, Todd, and I whitewashed the walls and waxed the wood floors. Two wide skylights flooded the space with light. I spent several days sitting beneath them at a card table, drinking deli coffee and plotting my next move.
In the end I was obliged to abandon my caf�. Two years before, I had met the musician Fred Sonic Smith in Detroit. It was an unexpected encounter that slowly altered the course of my life. My yearning for him permeated everything-my poems, my songs, my heart. We endured a parallel existence, shuttling back and forth between New York and Detroit, brief rendezvous that always ended in wrenching separations. Just as I was mapping out where to install a sink and a coffee machine, Fred implored me to come and live with him in Detroit. I said goodbye to New York City and the aspirations it contained. I packed what was most precious and left all else behind. I didn't mind. The solitary hours I'd spent drinking coffee at the card table, awash in the radiance of my caf� dream, were enough for me.
Some months before our first wedding anniversary Fred told me that if I promised to give him a child he would first take me anywhere in the world. I chose Saint-Laurent du Maroni, a border town in northwest French Guiana. I had long wished to see the remains of the French penal colony where hard-core criminals were once shipped before being transferred to Devil's Island. In The Thief's Journal Jean Genet had written of Saint-Laurent as hallowed ground and of its inmates with devotional empathy. He had ascended the ladder toward them: reform school, petty thief, and three-time loser; but as he was sentenced, the prison he'd held in such reverence was closed, the last living inmates returned to France. Genet served his time in Fresnes Prison. Devastated, he wrote: I am shorn of my infamy.
At 70, Genet was reportedly in poor health and most likely would never go to Saint-Laurent himself. I envisioned bringing him its earth and stone. Though often amused by my quixotic notions, Fred did not make light of this self-imposed task. He agreed without argument. I wrote a letter to William Burroughs, whom I had known since my early 20s. William, close to Genet and possessing his own romantic sensibility, promised to assist me in delivering the stones.
Preparing for our trip, Fred and I spent our days in the Detroit Public Library studying the history of Suriname and French Guiana. Fred bought maps, khaki clothing, traveler's checks, and a compass; cut his long, lank hair; and bought a French dictionary. When he embraced an idea he looked at things from every angle. He did not read Genet, however. He left that up to me.
We flew on a Sunday to Miami and stayed for two nights in a roadside motel. We ate red beans and yellow rice in Little Havana and visited Crocodile World. The short stay readied us for the extreme heat we were about to face. In Grenada and Haiti, all passengers had to deplane while the hold was searched for smuggled goods. We finally landed in Suriname at dawn; a handful of young soldiers armed with automatic weapons waited as we were herded into a bus that transported us to a vetted hotel. The first anniversary of the 1980 military coup that overthrew the democratic government was looming: an anniversary just days before our own.
After a few days bending in the heat of the capital city of Paramaribo, a guide drove us 150 kilometers to the town of Albina on the west bank of the Maroni River bordering French Guiana. The pink sky was veined in lightning. Our guide found a young boy who agreed to take us across by pirogue, a long dugout canoe. We pushed off in a light rain that swiftly escalated into a torrential downpour. The boy handed me an umbrella and warned us not to trail our fingers in the water. I suddenly noticed the river teeming with tiny black fish. Piranha! He laughed as I quickly withdrew my hand.
In an hour or so the boy dropped us off at the foot of a muddy embankment. He dragged his pirogue onto land and joined some workers beneath a length of black oilcloth stretched over four wooden posts. They seemed amused by our momentary confusion and pointed us in the direction of the main road. As we struggled up a slippery knoll, the calypso beat of Mighty Swallow's "Soca Dance" wafted from a boom box. We tramped through the empty town, finally taking cover in a bar. Two men were drinking Calvados. Fred engaged in a broken French-English conversation with a leathery-skinned fellow who presided over the nearby turtle reserves. As the rains subsided, the owner of the local hotel appeared, offering his services. Then a younger, sulkier version emerged to take our bags, and we followed them along a muddied trail down a hill to our lodgings. We had not even booked a hotel and yet a room awaited us.
The H�tel Galibi was spartan yet comfortable. A small bottle of watered-down cognac and two plastic cups were set on the dresser. Spent, we slept, even as the returning rain beat relentlessly upon the corrugated tin roof. The morning sun was strong. I left our clothes to dry on the patio and spread the contents of our pockets on a small table: damp receipts, dismembered fruits, Fred's ever-present guitar picks.
Around noon a cement worker drove us outside the ruins of the Saint-Laurent prison. There were a few stray chickens scratching in the dirt and an overturned bicycle, but no one seemed to be around. Our driver entered with us through a low stone archway and then just slipped away. The compound had the air of a tragically defunct boomtown. Fred and I moved about in alchemical silence, mindful not to disturb the reigning spirits.
In search of the right stones, I entered the solitary cells, examining the faded graffiti tattooing the walls. Hairy balls, cocks with wings, the prime organ of Genet's angels. Not here, I thought. I looked around for Fred. He had found a small graveyard. I saw him paused before a headstone that read, "Son your mother is praying for you." He stood there for a long time looking up at the sky. I left him alone and inspected the outbuildings, finally choosing the earthen floor of the mass cell to gather the stones. It was a dank place the size of a small airplane hangar. Heavy, rusted chains were anchored into the walls illuminated by slim shafts of light. Yet there was still some scent of life: manure, earth, and an array of scuttling beetles.
I dug a few inches seeking stones that might have been pressed by the hard-calloused feet of the inmates or the soles of heavy boots worn by the guards. I carefully chose three and put them in an oversize Gitanes matchbox, leaving the bits of earth clinging to them. Fred offered his handkerchief to wipe the dirt from my hands and then made a little sack for the matchbox. He placed it in my hands, the first step toward placing them in the hands of Genet.
We didn't stay long in Saint-Laurent. We went seaside but the turtle reserves were off-limits, as they were spawning. Fred spent a lot of time in the bar, talking to the fellows. The men seemed to respect him, regarding him without irony. He had that effect on other men. I was content just sitting on a crate outside the bar staring down an empty street I had never seen and might never see again.
For the most part I kept to myself. Occasionally I caught glimpses of the maid, a barefoot girl with long, dark hair. She smiled and gestured but spoke no English. She tidied our room and washed our clothes. In gratitude I gave her one of my bracelets, a gold chain with a four-leaf clover, which I saw dangling from her wrist as we departed.
There was no rail service in French Guiana. The fellow from the bar had found us a driver, who carried himself like an extra in The Harder They Come with a cocked cap, aviator sunglasses, and a leopard-print shirt. We arranged a price and he agreed to drive us the 268 kilometers to Cayenne. He insisted our bags stay with him in the front seat of his beat-up tan Peugeot as chickens were normally transported in the trunk. We drove along Route Nationale, listening to reggae on a station riddled with static.
Every once in a while I untied the handkerchief to look at the Gitanes matchbox with its silhouette of a Gypsy posturing with her tambourine in a swirl of indigo-tinged smoke. But I did not open it. I pictured a small yet triumphal moment passing the stones to Genet. Fred held my hand as we wound through dense forests and passed short, sturdy Amerindians balancing iguanas squarely on their heads. We traveled through a tiny commune that had just a few houses and one six-foot crucifix. We asked the driver to stop. He got out and examined his tires. Fred took a photograph of the sign that read "Tonate. Population 9," and I said a little prayer.
The primary mission accomplished, we had no ultimate destination; we were free. But as we approached Kourou we sensed a shift. We were entering a military zone and hit a checkpoint. The driver's identity card was inspected and after an interminable stretch of silence we were ordered to get out of the car. Two officers searched the front and back seats, finding a switchblade with a broken spring in the glove box. That can't be so bad, I thought, but as they knocked on the trunk our driver became markedly agitated. Dead chickens? Maybe drugs. They circled around the car, and then asked him for the keys. He threw them in a shallow ravine and bolted but was swiftly wrestled to the ground. I glanced sidelong at Fred. He betrayed no emotion and I followed his lead.
They opened the trunk. Inside was a man who looked to be in his early 30s curled up like a slug in a rusting conch shell. He seemed terrified as they poked him with a rifle and ordered him to get out. We were all herded to the police headquarters, put in separate rooms, and interrogated in French. The commander arrived, and we were brought before him. He was barrel-chested with dark, sad eyes and a thick mustache that dominated his careworn face. Fred quickly took stock of things. I slipped into the role of compliant female, for in this obscure annex of the Foreign Legion it was definitely a man's world. I watched silently as the human contraband, stripped and shackled, was led away. Fred was ordered into the commander's office. He turned and looked at me. stay calm was the message telegraphed from his pale blue eyes.
An officer brought in our bags, and another wearing white gloves went through everything. I sat holding the handkerchief, relieved I was not asked to surrender it. An interrogator brought me a black coffee on an oval tray with an inlay of a blue butterfly and entered the commander's office. I could see Fred's profile. After a time they all came out. They seemed in amiable spirits. The commander gave Fred a manly embrace and we were placed in a private car. Neither of us said a word as we pulled into the capital city of Cayenne. Fred had the address of a hotel given to him by the commander. We were dropped off at the foot of a hill. It's somewhere up there, the driver motioned, and we carried our bags up the stone steps.
-What did you two talk about? I asked.
-I really can't say for sure, he only spoke French.
-How did you communicate?
-Cognac.
Fred seemed deep in thought.
-I know that you are concerned about the fate of the driver, he said, but it's out of our hands. He placed us in real jeopardy and in the end my concern was for you.
-Oh, I wasn't afraid.
-Yes, he said, that's why I was concerned.
The hotel was to our liking. We drank French brandy from a paper sack and slept wrapped in layers of mosquito netting. In the morning we explored Cayenne. It was Carnival time, and the city was all but deserted. Overcrowded ferries departed for Devil's Island. Calypso music poured from a mammoth disco in the shape of an armadillo. There were a few small souvenir stands with identical fare: thin, red blankets made in China and metallic blue raincoats. But mostly there were lighters, all kinds of lighters, with images of parrots, spaceships, and men of the Foreign Legion. There was nothing much to keep one there, yet we stayed in Cayenne until our anniversary as if bewitched.
On our last Sunday, women in bright dresses and men in top hats were celebrating the end of Carnival. Following their makeshift parade on foot, we ended up at R�mire-Montjoly, a commune southeast of the city. The revelers dispersed. Fred and I stood mesmerized by the emptiness of the long, sweeping beaches. It was a perfect day for our anniversary and I couldn't help thinking it was the perfect spot for a beach caf�. Fred went on before me, whistling to a black dog somewhat up ahead. There was no sign of his master. Fred threw a stick into the water and the dog fetched it. I knelt down in the sand and sketched out plans for an imaginary caf� with my finger.
M Train
From the National Book Award–winning author of Just Kids: a “sublime collection of true stories … and wild imaginings that take us to the very heart of who Patti Smith is” (Vanity Fair), told through the cafés and haunts she has worked in around the world. Patti Smith calls this bestselling work “a roadmap to my life.” M Train begins in the tiny Greenwich Village café where Smith goes every morning for black coffee, ruminates on the world as it is and the world as it was, and writes in her notebook. Through prose that shifts fluidly between dreams and reality, past and present, we travel to Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul in Mexico; to the fertile moon terrain of Iceland; to a ramshackle seaside bungalow in New York’s Far Rockaway that Smith acquires just before Hurricane Sandy hits; to the West 4th Street subway station, filled with the sounds of the Velvet Underground after the death of Lou Reed; and to the graves of Genet, Plath, Rimbaud, and Mishima. Woven throughout are reflections on the writer’s craft and on artistic creation. Here, too, are singular memories of Smith’s life in Michigan and the irremediable loss of her husband, Fred Sonic Smith. Braiding despair with hope and consolation, illustrated with her signature Polaroids, M Train is a meditation on travel, detective shows, literature, and coffee. It is a powerful, deeply moving book by one of the most remarkable multiplatform artists at work today. Featuring a postscript with five new photos from Patti Smith
Patti Smith calls this bestselling work “a roadmap to my life.” M Train begins in the tiny Greenwich Village café where Smith goes every morning for black coffee, ruminates on the world as it is and the world as it was, and writes in ..."
A Book of Days
A deeply moving and brilliantly idiosyncratic visual book of days by the National Book Award-winning author of Just Kids and M Train. More than 365 images chart Smith's singular aesthetic - inspired by her wildly popular Instagram In 2018, without any plan or agenda for what might happen next, Patti Smith posted her first Instagram photo: her hand with the simple message “Hello Everybody!” Known for shooting with her beloved Land Camera 250, Smith started posting images from her phone including portraits of her kids, her radiator, her boots, and her Abyssinian cat, Cairo. Followers felt an immediate affinity with these miniature windows into Smith's world, photographs of her daily coffee, the books she's reading, the graves of beloved heroes - William Blake, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, Simone Weil, Albert Camus. Over time, a coherent story of a life devoted to art took shape, and more than a million followers responded to Smith's unique aesthetic in images that chart her passions, devotions, obsessions, and whims. Original to this book are vintage photographs: anniversary pearls, a mother's keychain, and a husband's Mosrite guitar. Here, too, are never-before-seen photos of life on and off the road, train stations, obscure cafés, a notebook always nearby. In wide-ranging yet intimate daily notations, Smith shares dispatches from her travels around the world. With 365 photographs, taking you through a single year, A Book of Days is a new way to experience the expansive mind of the visionary poet, writer, and performer. Hopeful, elegiac, playful - and complete with an introduction by Smith that explores her documentary process - A Book of Days is a timeless offering for deeply uncertain times, an inspirational map of an artist's life.
Original to this book are vintage photographs: anniversary pearls, a mother's keychain, and a husband's Mosrite guitar."
Year of the Monkey
Riveting, elegant, humorous—and illustrated by Smith’s signature Polaroids—New York Times bestseller Year of the Monkey is a moving and original work, a touchstone for our turbulent times. “A picaresque voyage through Patti Smith’s dreams and life, blending fiction and reality, conjured characters and actual ones”—The New York Times Following a run of new year’s concerts at San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore, Patti Smith finds herself tramping the coast of Santa Cruz, about to embark on a year of solitary wandering. Unfettered by logic or time, she draws us into her private wonderland, in which she debates intellectual grifters and spars with the likes of a postmodern Cheshire Cat. Then, in February 2016, a surreal lunar year begins, bringing unexpected turns, heightened mischief, and inescapable sorrow. For Smith—inveterately curious, always exploring, always writing—this becomes a year of reckoning with the changes in life’s gyre: with loss, aging, and a dramatic shift in the political landscape of America. Taking us from California to the Arizona desert, from a Kentucky farm to the hospital room of a valued mentor, Smith melds the western landscape with her own dreamscape in a haunting, poetic blend of fact and fiction. As a stranger tells her, “Anything is possible. After all, it’s the Year of the Monkey.” But as Smith heads toward a new decade in her own life, she offers this balm to the reader: her wisdom, wit, gimlet eye, and above all, a rugged hope for a better world. Named one of NPR’s Best Books of the Year—now including a new chapter, "Epilogue of an Epilogue," and ten new photos—Year of the Monkey “reminds us that despair and possibility often spring from the same source” (Los Angeles Times).
After all, it’s the Year of the Monkey.” But as Smith heads toward a new decade in her own life, she offers this balm to the reader: her wisdom, wit, gimlet eye, and above all, a rugged hope for a better world."
Devotion
"In lyric essays, a story, poems, and photographs, Smith illuminates the whirl of chance and choice that stokes a writer's imagination, recounting her fascination on the eve of a trip to Paris with Simone Weil and an evocative, accidentally discovered film about Stalin's mass deportation of Estonians. In France, a gravestone, a televised figure-skating competition, a meal, and a garden all converge in what becomes Devotion, [a] ... fairy tale about a young, displaced Estonian skater and a solitary dealer in rare objects and arms. This ... fable about creativity and obsession, possession and freedom is followed by a meditation on how a work of art is, for other artists, a call to action"--Booklist, 08/01/2017.
In France, a gravestone, a televised figure-skating competition, a meal, and a garden all converge in what becomes Devotion, [a] ... fairy tale about a young, displaced Estonian skater and a solitary dealer in rare objects and arms."
Patti Smith Collected Lyrics, 1970–2015
An American original, Patti Smith is a multi-disciplined artist and performer. Her work is rooted in poetry, which infused her 1975 landmark album, Horses. A declaration of existence, Horses was described as 'three chords merged with the power of the word'; it was graced with the now iconic portrait by Robert Mapplethorpe, the subject of her award-winning memoir Just Kids. Initially published in 1998, Patti Smith's Complete Lyrics was a testimony to her uncompromising poetic power. Now, on the fortieth anniversary of the release of Smith's groundbreaking album, Collected Lyrics has been revised and expanded with more than thirty-five additional songs, including her first, 'Work Song', written for Janis Joplin in 1970, and her most current, 'Writer's Song', to be recorded in 2015. The collection is liberally illustrated with original manuscripts of lyrics from Smith's extensive archive. Patti Smith's work continues to retain its relevance, whether controversial, political, romantic or spiritual. Collected Lyrics offers forty-five years of song, an enduring commemoration of Smith's unique contribution to the canon of rock and roll.
The collection is liberally illustrated with original manuscripts of lyrics from Smith's extensive archive. Patti Smith's work continues to retain its relevance, whether controversial, political, romantic or spiritual."
Auguries of Innocence
Auguries of Innocence is the first book of poetry from Patti Smith in more than a decade. It marks a major accomplishment from a poet and performer who has inscribed her vision of our world in powerful anthems, ballads, and lyrics. In this intimate and searing collection of poems, Smith joins in that great tradition of troubadours, journeymen, wordsmiths, and artists who respond to the world around them in fresh and original language. Her influences are eclectic and striking: Blake, Rimbaud, Picasso, Arbus, and Johnny Appleseed. Smith is an American original; her poems are oracles for our times.
Auguries of Innocence is the first book of poetry from Patti Smith in more than a decade."
Just Kids Limited Edition
A deluxe limited hardcover edition, signed by Patti Smith, Just Kids, Smith’s New York Times bestselling first book of prose, offers a never-before-seen glimpse of the iconic American musician’s remarkable relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the epochal days of New York City and the Chelsea Hotel in the late sixties and seventies. Limited to a numbered 1,000 copy print run, Just Kids Limited Edition is a beautiful keepsake that tells through words and pictures an honest and moving story of youth and friendship.
A deluxe limited hardcover edition, signed by Patti Smith, Just Kids, Smith’s New York Times bestselling first book of prose, offers a never-before-seen glimpse of the iconic American musician’s remarkable relationship with photographer ..."
Just Kids
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 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.
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 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."
More Than Friends
This is a story about 14 women, from all parts of the country, who found themselves living incommunity with up to 300 others in the 1970's. Ahead of their time in some respects--passive solar houses, organichome-grown food, bulk organic rice and grains, but in some other respects, these women found that themale-dominated culture of the country was repeated even in the counter culture of the times. As they left, each went on to accomplish much--PhDs, Masters, RNs , business owners. Years later something drew them back together--something they had experienced during that time that had not happened in another part of their lives. This is that story.
This is a story about 14 women, from all parts of the country, who found themselves living incommunity with up to 300 others in the 1970's."
Robert Mapplethorpe
A revised and updated edition of the most comprehensive survey published of Mapplethorpe's photography Robert Mapplethorpe was one of the twentieth century's most important and influential artists, known for his groundbreaking and provocative work. He studied painting, drawing, and sculpture in Brooklyn in the 1960s and started taking photographs when he acquired a Polaroid camera in 1970. This comprehensive monograph is an overview of the artist's black-and-white photography of floral still lifes, nudes, selfportraits, and portraits, among other subjects-and also includes a selection of his color images.
A revised and updated edition of the most comprehensive survey published of Mapplethorpe's photography Robert Mapplethorpe was one of the twentieth century's most important and influential artists, known for his groundbreaking and ..."
El año del mono / The Year of the Monkey
Un nuevo libro de memorias de la autora de Éramos unos niños, ganadora del National Book Award: «El año del Mono es la obra que más se parece a mí». «Milagroso. [...] Una obra maestra. [...] Smith resplandece; se mueve por el mundo como un viajero en el tiempo, un espía, un vagabundo en la tierra de la literatura y la vida. Es un espejo humano.»- Maria Popova, Brain Pickings Al contemplar mi imagen en la superficie gris mercurio de la tostadora, me fijé en que parecía joven y vieja al mismo tiempo. Son las dos de la madrugada de la Nochevieja de 2015 cuando Patti Smith llega al Dream Motel, junto a la playa de Santa Cruz, tras dar un concierto en la legendaria sala Fillmore de San Francisco. Acaba de cumplir setenta años. En la primera mañana del año sale a dar un paseo y toma su primera polaroid del rótulo del hotel, con el que mantiene una lúcida conversación, como una Alicia moderna en su particular País de las Maravillas. La charla le inspira unos versos y decide volver a su habitación, desde cuya terraza escucha las olas y piensa en su amigo Sandy Pearlman, el famoso productor musical, que lleva dos días en coma. Él fue la persona que le sugirió en su juventud que montara una banda de rock. Así comienza un viaje por lugares como la Costa Oeste, el desierto de Arizona, Manhattan o Kentucky, pero también por parajes recordados o imaginados, del mundo exterior y del interior, en el que Patti Smith nos permite deambular a su lado como sus acompañantes más íntimos. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION New York Times Best Seller From the National Book Award-winning author of Just Kids and M Train, a profound, beautifully realized memoir in which dreams and reality are vividly woven into a tapestry of one transformative year. Following a run of New Year's concerts at San Francisco's legendary Fillmore, Patti Smith finds herself tramping the coast of Santa Cruz, about to embark on a year of solitary wandering. Unfettered by logic or time, she draws us into her private wonderland with no design, yet heeding signs--including a talking sign that looms above her, prodding and sparring like the Cheshire Cat. In February, a surreal lunar year begins, bringing with it unexpected turns, heightened mischief, and inescapable sorrow. In a stranger's words, "Anything is possible: after all, it's the Year of the Monkey." For Smith--inveterately curious, always exploring, tracking thoughts, writing--the year evolves as one of reckoning with the changes in life's gyre: with loss, aging, and a dramatic shift in the political landscape of America. Smith melds the western landscape with her own dreamscape. Taking us from California to the Arizona desert; to a Kentucky farm as the amanuensis of a friend in crisis; to the hospital room of a valued mentor; and by turns to remembered and imagined places, this haunting memoir blends fact and fiction with poetic mastery. The unexpected happens; grief and disillusionment set in. But as Smith heads toward a new decade in her own life, she offers this balm to the reader: her wisdom, wit, gimlet eye, and above all, a rugged hope for a better world.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION New York Times Best Seller From the National Book Award-winning author of Just Kids and M Train, a profound, beautifully realized memoir in which dreams and reality are vividly woven into a tapestry of one transformative ..."
Patti Smith Complete
From her legendary album Horses to her most recent releases, Gung Ho and Land 1975 - 2002, this book charts the lyrical journey of a poet and musician whose words have influenced a generation. Illustrated with around 150 photographs as well as original artwork, Patti Smith Complete includes previously unpublished work by renowned photographers documenting close to three decades of creative development. Complete also includes artwork and mementoes from the author's archive and personal reflections drawn from her extensive journals, a record of the time when Rock and Roll made an indelible mark on the world.
From her legendary album Horses to her most recent releases, Gung Ho and Land 1975 - 2002, this book charts the lyrical journey of a poet and musician whose words have influenced a generation."
The Coral Sea
Before the National Book Award-winning Just Kids, Patti Smith addressed the life and passing of her intimate friend, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Through the linked pieces of The Coral Sea, Patti Smith honors her comrade-in-arms Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989). She tells the story of a man on an ocean journey to see the Southern Cross, who is reflecting on his life and fighting the illness that is consuming him. Metaphoric and dreamy, this tale of transformation arises from Smith's knowledge of Mapplethorpe from a young man to a mature artist; his close relationship with patron and friend, Sam Wagstaff; his years surviving AIDS; and his ascent into death. The Coral Sea is Smith's lyrically compelling recasting of her grief to recapture Mapplethorpe's life in the past and his future in his art. Rich in evocative details, it shows the man beneath the persona. This edition features a new introduction and new material by Smith.
Rich in evocative details, it shows the man beneath the persona. This edition features a new introduction and new material by Smith."
Wuthering Heights
The passionate love of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff mirrors the powerful moods of the Yorkshire moors.
The passionate love of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff mirrors the powerful moods of the Yorkshire moors."
Patti Smith Collected Lyrics, 1970-2015
An American original, Patti Smith is a multi-disciplined artist and performer. Her work is rooted in poetry, which infused her 1975 landmark album, Horses. A declaration of existence, Horses was described as 'three chords merged with the power of the word'; it was graced with the now iconic portrait by Robert Mapplethorpe, the subject of her award-winning memoir Just Kids. Initially published in 1998, Patti Smith's Complete Lyrics was a testimony to her uncompromising poetic power. Now, on the fortieth anniversary of the release of Smith's groundbreaking album, Collected Lyrics has been revised and expanded with more than thirty-five additional songs, including her first, 'Work Song', written for Janis Joplin in 1970, and her most current, 'Writer's Song', to be recorded in 2015. The collection is liberally illustrated with original manuscripts of lyrics from Smith's extensive archive.Patti Smith's work continues to retain its relevance, whether controversial, political, romantic or spiritual. Collected Lyrics offers forty-five years of song, an enduring commemoration of Smith's unique contribution to the canon of rock and roll.
The collection is liberally illustrated with original manuscripts of lyrics from Smith's extensive archive.Patti Smith's work continues to retain its relevance, whether controversial, political, romantic or spiritual."
The New Jerusalem
The New Jerusalem, the latest book by Patti Smith - poet, punk legend and author of the bestsellers Just Kids and M Train. A stunning long prose poem in the tradition of St. John and William Blake, The New Jerusalem presents a prophetic vision of art and humanity, faith and freedom; a vision of escape from the rituals of power and the mechanisms of social control. Illustrated with colour photographs and art work by Patti Smith, this beautiful hardbound volume is a true collector's item. With an introduction by Rob Riemen exploring the connection between art and spirituality in Patti Smith's poem and in art more broadly, The New Jerusalem can serve as a reminder of the prophetic power of poetry and a guide to all who need it in these times of resistance. The New Jerusalem was presented at the Nexus Symposium with Patti Smith "An Education in Counterculture\
The New Jerusalem, the latest book by Patti Smith - poet, punk legend and author of the bestsellers Just Kids and M Train."
Patti Smith
Dream of Life is an evocative exploration of of the interior life of the artist. Integrated throughout the book are quotes, transcripts and unpublished and private photograph's revealing Patti Smth's extraordinary personal journey. This is the first book from the artist herself. This one-of-a-kind volume provides a unique and rare glimpse into the mind, inspirations and creative spiritof one of today's most accomplished artists. Dream of Life is a vital chronicle of rock history, as bold and individual as Patti herself and is the vivid embodiment of the film of the same name and companion to the travelling art installation Objects of Life, featuring Patti's prized collection of artifacts.
Integrated throughout the book are quotes, transcripts and unpublished and private photograph's revealing Patti Smth's extraordinary personal journey. This is the first book from the artist herself."
Patti Smith and José Antonio Suárez Londoño: Hecatomb
This book is the result of a long awaited collaboration between rock icon Patti Smith and the great Colombian draughtsman José Antonio Suárez Londoño. Featuring a poem dedicated by Smith to Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño the text is beautifully complemented with 20 drawings made specifically for the project by Suárez Londoño. This very special and artisanal edition is a must for any admirer of this duo, as well as for any enthusiast of poetry and art in general.
This book is the result of a long awaited collaboration between rock icon Patti Smith and the great Colombian draughtsman José Antonio Suárez Londoño."
Early Work 1970 To 1979
Selections from Patti Smith's writings over the decade in which she made a lasting impact on America's underground literary and rock scene. Collected here are selections from Patti Smith's writings over the decade in which she made a lasting impact on America's underground literary and rock scene. Smith's work evokes the experimentation and the desire to break boundaries of those pre-punk days. Over one-quarter of the works selected are unpublished pieces from journals, performances, and Smith's personal papers. Heavily illustrated with photographs by Judy Linn, Robert Mapplethorpe, Edward Maxey, and others, Early Work brings together all sides of Patti Smith, from the thoughtful intellectual to the explosive performer.
Collected here are selections from Patti Smith's writings over the decade in which she made a lasting impact on America's underground literary and rock scene."
Just Kids Illustrated Edition
Patti Smith’s National Book Award–winning memoir, now richly illustrated with new material and never-before-seen photographs Patti’s Smith’s exquisite prose is generously illustrated in this full-color edition of her classic coming-of-age memoir, Just Kids. New York locations vividly come to life where, as young artists, Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe met and fell in love: a first apartment in Brooklyn, Times Square with John and Yoko’s iconic billboard, Max’s Kansas City, or the gritty fire escape of the Hotel Chelsea. The extraordinary people who passed through their lives are also pictured: Sam Shepard, Harry Smith, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg. Along with never-before-published photographs, drawings, and ephemera, this edition captures a moment in New York when everything was possible. And when two kids seized their destinies as artists and soul mates in this inspired story of love and friendship.
Patti Smith’s National Book Award–winning memoir, now richly illustrated with new material and never-before-seen photographs Patti’s Smith’s exquisite prose is generously illustrated in this full-color edition of her classic coming ..."
Woolgathering
Now expanded, an ode to childhood and to "woolgathering" as the wellsprings for a life of creativity?when treasured up, recollected, and drawn upon
Patti Smith tells real and imagined stories from her childhood."
Patti Smith Collected Lyrics
An essential new collection of the lyrics of Patti Smith, writer, artist and musician, author of the international bestseller Just Kids
The collection is liberally illustrated with original manuscripts of lyrics from Smith's extensive archive.Patti Smith's work continues to retain its relevance, whether controversial, political, romantic or spiritual."
Downtown Ann Arbor
In 1824, John Allen and Elisha Rumsey established the first homestead in what is now downtown Ann Arbor. The story goes that the community got its name when the two founders' wives, both named Ann, were seen lounging in a grove of trees. In reality, Ann Allen and Mary Ann Rumsey were never in town at the same time, but how it actually was named is unimportant when considering what Ann Arbor grew into. Early settlers gave the town schools, an expansive courthouse, a beautiful post office, and streetcar lines that spanned downtown. They built this town, and their legacy is present in every walk up Huron Street, drive down to William and Main Streets, or bike ride over to Kerrytown.
In 1824, John Allen and Elisha Rumsey established the first homestead in what is now downtown Ann Arbor. The story goes that the community got its name when the two founders' wives, both named Ann, were seen lounging in a grove of trees."
What Am I to Do Now?: Simple Strategies to Navigate the Unknown and Ignite What's Next in Your Life
Are you settling for a life of status quo results? Feeling empty and uninspired? Do you believe you have much more to contribute, but don't know what that looks like or where to begin? In What Am I To Do Now?, Patti Smith shares her Seven Step System to Ignite You. This transformational guide will help you create an inspired, focused, and actionable life plan that will serve as your compass in your what's next evolution. In these pages, Patti shares her personal journey and those of others who have inspired her Through real-life examples, she'll show you how to empower yourself through your setbacks to create a vision-driven life. Well, get ready to hit "reset" and experience the unimaginable!
In What Am I To Do Now?, Patti Smith shares her Seven Step System to Ignite You. This transformational guide will help you create an inspired, focused, and actionable life plan that will serve as your compass in your what's next evolution."
Glad I Am the Tree
What's so great about being a tree? In this rhyming tale, kids get the story from a tree's perspective.
What's so great about being a tree? In this rhyming tale, kids get the story from a tree's perspective."
No comments:
Post a Comment