Just Kids
In this memoir, singer-songwriter Patti Smith shares tales of New York City : the denizens of Max's Kansas City, the Hotel Chelsea, Scribner's, Brentano's and Strand bookstores and her new life in Brooklyn with a young man named Robert Mapplethorpe--the man who changed her life with his love, friendship, and genius.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Just Kids
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Patti Smith leaves New Jersey at twenty for a Manhattan that runs on Chelsea Hotel residents and downtown bookshops. She meets Robert Mapplethorpe, and the two of them build the artists they later become.
Yes. Just Kids is Patti Smith's 2010 memoir about her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in 1960s and 1970s New York. It covers the years before each became famous.
Yes. Just Kids won the 2010 National Book Award for Nonfiction. It is widely considered one of the great memoirs of the 21st century, and it cemented Patti Smith's reputation as a literary artist alongside her musical career.
Just Kids was written by Patti Smith, published in 2006 by Harper Collins.
Just Kids is 320 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Just Kids takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
Just Kids is a standalone novel by Patti Smith, not part of a series.
Just Kids is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.