She’s one of the most influential women in rock & roll, a punk rock poet who’s still producing great albums. Now New York City legend Patti Smith has taken home America’s National Book Award in the non-fiction category, for her 2010 publication Just Kids.
The story of her friendship, romantic and artistic relationship with the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, Just Kids is a touching memoir that outlines an exciting time in the Big Apple, when a myriad of musicians intertwined with each other’s lives. The 63-year-old “Because The Night” singer had promised her old friend that she would tell their story, and kept her word.
“I went over a lot of materials,” Smith told Spinner, revealing she kept a daily diary and notes of her life for decades. “Robert’s letters to me, my daily diaries of when I was 20; and when I lived at the Chelsea [Hotel], I wrote down what happened, every day. I have little notations like ‘Cut Robert’s hair,’ ‘Met Janis Joplin,’ ‘Got a new book store job,’ ‘Met Salvador Dali.’ So I have the exact dates of when these things happened, so it helped in providing a proper chronology.”
Smith, who revealed she is currently recording the follow-up to 2007’s Tewlve, accepted her award at a ceremony in New York yesterday. “I dreamed of having a book of my own, of writing one that I could put on a shelf,” she told the crowd.
“Please, no matter how we advance technologically, please don’t abandon the book. There is nothing in our material world more beautiful than the book.”
Smith also makes a guest appearance by the upcoming fifteenth album by REM, titled Collapse Into Now.
