Patti Smith's memoir of her formative years in late-1960s and 1970s New York and her deep, enduring relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, from their poverty at the Chelsea Hotel to their emergence as artists.
Books mentioned in Just Kids (29)
Ariel by Sylvia Plath: “I gathered up my notebooks and found among them the copy of Sylvia Plath's Ariel that Robert bought me when we first met.”
Foxe's Book of Martyrs by John Foxe: “When my mother discovered that I had hidden her crimson copy of Foxe's Book of Martyrs beneath my pillow, with hopes of absorbing its meaning, she sat me down and began the laborious process of teaching me to read.”
The Golden Bough by James George Frazer: “One time, when I was sitting in the lobby reading The Golden Bough, Harry noticed I had a beat-up two-volume first edition.”
Milton by William Blake: “I also had a vellum edition of Blake's collected writings, and he had the Trianon Press edition of Blake's Milton.”
Hamlet by William Shakespeare: “There was the copy of Hamlet from Gerome Ragni, who imagined me playing the sad and arrogant Danish prince.”
Island by Tony Ingrassia: “Later that night at Max's, I ran into Tony Ingrassia, a playwright who worked out of La MaMa. He asked me to read for a role in his new play Island.”
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: “Jo, the tomboy of the four March sisters in Little Women, writes to help support her family, struggling to make ends meet during the Civil War.”
Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake: “I had a very pretty facsimile of Songs of Innocence and of Experience, and I often read it to Robert before we went to sleep.”
A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson: “We lost many a battle in my absence and my weary troops would gather around my bed and I would offer a benediction from the child soldier's bible, A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson.”
Index (Book) by Andy Warhol: “On one of my expeditions I found Robert a slightly used copy of Andy Warhol's Index Book.”
Les Enfants Terribles by Jean Cocteau: “To me, Robert and I were irrevocably entwined, like Paul and Elisabeth, the sister and brother in Cocteau's Les Enfants Terribles.”
Locus Solus by Raymond Roussel: “I had decided to name it Raymond, after Raymond Roussel, who wrote Locus Solus.”
Psychedelic Prayers by Timothy Leary: “And they accompanied themselves by reciting from Timothy Leary's Psychedelic Prayers, one of the few books Robert actually read.”
Women of Cairo by Gerard de Nerval: “I read Nerval's Women of Cairo, and the stories of Bowles, Mrabet, Albert Cossery, and Isabelle Eberhardt.”
Zelda by Nancy Milford: “Reading the story of Zelda Fitzgerald by Nancy Milford, I identified with her mutinous spirit.”
Pomes Penyeach by James Joyce: “In Poems a Penny Each, James Joyce wrote a line that dogged me—the signs that mock me as I go.”
The Beckoning Sea by George Mandel: “I picked up the Beat anthology and found “The Beckoning Sea” by George Mandel. I read him softly, and then at the top of my voice, to get the sea he embedded in the words.”
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene: “He was like a character in Brighton Rock in his forties-style hat, black net T-shirt, and huaraches.”
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann: “His presence brought to mind the character of Tadzio in Death in Venice.”
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce: “As when the corrected proofs of Finnegans Wake, left on a backseat within a maze of taxicabs, were magically returned to the hands of an astonished and grateful James Joyce.”
Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham: “They both had aspects of Mildred Rogers, the coarse illiterate waitress in Of Human Bondage.”
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie: “I protested vehemently and announced that I was never going to become anything but myself, that I was of the clan of Peter Pan and we did not grow up.”
Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne: “It was shaped like an arrow, with rabbit hair for the White Rabbit, a line from Winnie the Pooh, and a locket-sized portrait of Brian.”
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe: “That year, the big sellers were Adam Smith's The Money Game and Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, summing up the polarization of everything that was rampant in our country.”
Querelle of Brest by Jean Genet: “In his sailor dress and cap, he resonated a Cocteau drawing or the world of Genet's Robert Querelle.”
A Season in Hell by Arthur Rimbaud: “I remembered him lying on his elegant daybed while I sat at his feet and he read me passages from A Season in Hell.”
Seventh Heaven by Patti Smith: “When Seventh Heaven was published, Robert arranged a book party for me with John and Maxime.”
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: “My experience most closely mirrored the “eat me, drink me” scene in Alice in Wonderland.”
Books that mention Just Kids (1)
How to Be a Heroine by Samantha Ellis: “I turn to Patti Smith’s mesmerising memoir Just Kids.”