First published in 2010, “Just Kids” by Patti Smith became an instant classic. The iconic book, winner of the National Book Award and number four on the New York Times Bestseller List, is the beloved tale of Smith’s youthful odyssey in New York City when, in the summer of 1969, a chance meeting would change the course of her life. It was the summer she met Robert Mapplethorpe.
“Just Kids Illustrated Edition,” which was released on Oct. 23, includes the classic memoir, a new introduction by Smith and more than 100 photographs by photographers such as Mapplethorpe, Judy Linn, Kate Simon and Lynn Davis.
Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP
Smith’s exquisite prose is generously illustrated in this full-color edition of her classic coming-of-age memoir. New York locations vividly come to life where, as young artists, Smith and 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 and 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.
Smith is a writer, performer and visual artist. She gained recognition in the 1970s for her revolutionary merging of poetry and rock and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. Her seminal album “Horses,” bearing Mapplethorpe’s renowned portrait of Smith in menswear, has been hailed as one of the top 100 albums of all time. Her books include “M Train,” “Witt, Babel, Woolgathering,” “The Coral Sea” and “Auguries of Innocence.”
