Ecco Just Kids

Winner of the National Book Award, Patti Smith's account of her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe makes it hard not to believe in fate. How else could one explain the chance encounter that brought them together and allowed both to flourish? Unconventional and captivating, it was the summer when Coltrane died, the summer of love and unrest, and the summer when a random meeting in Brooklyn set two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation. Patti Smith evolved into a poet and performer, while Robert Mapplethorpe directed his provocative style toward photography. Bound in innocence and enthusiasm, they traversed the city from Coney Island to Forty-Second Street, eventually reaching the famous round table at Max's Kansas City, where the Andy Warhol group held sway. In 1969, the two set up camp at the Chelsea Hotel and soon joined a community of the famous and infamous, the influential artists of the time, and the vibrant fringe groups. It was a time of heightened awareness when the worlds of poetry, rock and roll, art, and sexual politics collided and exploded. In this milieu, two kids made a pact to take care of each other. Fierce, romantic, determined to create, and driven by their shared dreams and ambitions, they supported each other through the hungry years. Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It is a salute to New York City in the late sixties and seventies and to its rich and poor, its rogues and troublemakers. A true fable, it is a portrait of the rise of two young artists, a prelude to fame.