Patti Smith with Robert Mapplethorpe I recently read Just Kids Patti Smith's memoir of her relationship with the late artist/photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and of their life together in the New York of the 1960s and 70s. It was wonderfully evocative of the music and art landscape of that particular time, dominated by the doyennes of Andy Warhol's Factory, Max's Kansas City and the Chelsea Hotel. I thought it was an absolute knock-out and wasn't surprised to learn that it won the National Book Award for nonfiction in November 2010. Before she was a rock star Patti Smith was a poet, inspired by other poets, and apparently not just by their work but also by their style and appearance. Arthur Rimbaud She worshiped the eighteenth century French poet, Arthur Rimbaud , and describes the shopping she did before undertaking a pilgrimage to his birthplace and grave in Charleville, France. On the Bowery I found an unconstructed raincoat of kelly green rubberized silk, a Dior b...
