Pic Credit: https://consequenceofsound.net/
Just Kids Patti Smith memoir tells a gritty story of NYC in the 60s and 70s. Smith is homeless when she first meets Robert Mapplethorpe, and there begins the tale of their creative journey. Smith’s charismatic words will guide you along with their love story—when all they had was art, records, and coffee. This book will have you questioning the things you value and remind you more than ever why, each and every day, you choose to write. In this post, you can find some interesting facts about Just Kids Patti Smith Memoir. Check it out!
Table of Contents
About Just Kids: An Overview
Just Kids is the first book of prose from the legendary American artist, Patty Smith. The book offers an incredible view of her marvellous relationship with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Their love increases during the late sixties and seventies in the days of New York City and the Chelsea Hotel. Just Kids shows an honest approach to friendship and youth. The book showcases the same astonishing, lyrical quality as the author has to the rest of her challenging body of work.
What Is A Memoir?
If you want to understand Just Kids Patti Smith memoir, then you need to understand the meaning of memoirs in the first place. Memoirs are non-fictional works focused on the author’s personal memories. The assertions are given in the book, therefore, are considered factual. It is basically a subcategory of the autobiography or biography. This genre of the books was differentiated in the 20th century from other similar works of writing to depict a more specific approach.
Memoirs are often confused with the biography or autobiography. However, there is a subtle difference between them, as stated below:
- Biographies are the story of a person’s entire life written by others.
- Autobiographies include the various incidents of a person’s life written by the person himself.
- Memoirs represent the incidents of a person’s life in a particular time period and are written by the person himself. This form of writing can showcase some major incidents or turning points of the author’s life that he strongly feels to pen down. The author of a memoir is known as a memoirist if a memorialist.
Summary Of Just Kids Patti Smith Memoir
Just Kids is a memoir written by Patty Smith and was launched in 2010. This story is of that time period of her life when she was 20 years old and moved to New York in 1967. There she started working as a waitress in the initial days to make ends meet. Later, she got a job at a bookshop and met rising artist Robert Mapplethorpe for the first time. She led her life with the artist in a bohemian late-twentieth-century style. Besides, the story also showcases the last significant period of artistic agitation in the city.
About the Author
If you are still confused about who Patty Smith actually is, then you need to know that she is a writer, performer, and a renowned visual artist. Her work of arts started getting recognition in the 1970s for the first time for her creative idea of merging poetry and rock. It was also introduced to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. Her influential album Horses was recognized as one of the top one hundred albums of all time. This album also included Robert Mapplethorpe’s renowned photograph. She has written several books and the names include M Train, Woolgathering, Witt, Babel, The Coral Sea, and Auguries of Innocence.
Critical Accreditations
Just Kids didn’t only win the hearts of the readers but was also one of the most critically acclaimed books. Just Kids Patty Smith’s book won the National Book Award for nonfiction category in 2010. Some other titles that the book holds are stated in the below-given list:
- Publishers Weekly’s Top 10 Best Books (2010)
- New York Times bestseller (Nonfiction, 2010)
- Ended up as Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist (Current Interest, 2010)
- ALA Notable Book (2011)
- Book of the Week 4 from 1–5 March 2010 on BBC Radio
- Among National Book Critics Circle Award finalist (Autobiography/Memoir, 2010).
On January 19, 2010, Just Kids was featured on Fresh Air’s episode where Smith was interviewed by Terry Gross. Just Kids Patti Smith book was also featured on KQED’s Forum with Michael Krasny on January 28, 2010.
TV Series On Memoir
An announcement was made in August 2015 that Showtime is developing a limited series based on Just Kids Patti Smith memoir. The network owned partial rights because Patti wanted to collaborate with writer John Logan. She was a huge fan of his series Penny Dreadful.
Patty stated about the show that Showtime’s limit series would allow us to showcase the characters of the book more lively. Besides, the show will enable us to disseminate the stories beyond the book using the unorthodox presentation. The limited series will give the memoir narrative freedom to elaborate on the themes of the book.
Final Words!!
Just Kids Patti Smith memoir won the National Book Award for nonfiction category in 2010, and this book has all the required ingredients to make a perfect award-winning recipe. If you love to read books and haven’t read Just Kids yet, then you should start reading it. This post covers some of the most crucial aspects of the memoir that you need to know regardless if you have read it or not. If you like reading our posts, then pay a visit to our blog section, where you can get more startling posts. Stay in touch!