Just Kids

Winner of the 2010 Non-Fiction National Book Award Patti Smiths definitive memoir: an evocative; honest and moving coming-of-age story of her extraordinary relationship with the artist Robert Mapplethorpe Sharp; elegiac and finely crafted Sunday Times Terrifically evocative . . . the most spellbinding and diverting portrait of funky-but-chic New York in the late 60s and 70s that any alumnus has committed to print New York Times Render; harrowing; often hilarious Vogue 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; Maxs Kansas City; Scribners Bookstore; Coney Island; Warhols 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.