Chances are good that you have heard of Patti Smith. Maybe you found one of her albums in your cool cousin’s record collection, or perhaps you heard her shouted out on the title track of Taylor Swift’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department. Regardless of how you know her, almost everyone can agree that Patti Smith is a cultural figure whose influence and importance cannot be understated.
But beyond the punk rock icon is a fascinating, complex, and multidisciplinary artist whose writing in particular has garnered her various literary awards, including the National Book Award. So who exactly is Patti Smith, and why does her work matter?
Let’s get started.
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Background and Beginnings
Patricia Lee Smith was born on December 30, 1946, in Chicago, Illinois. She was the oldest of four children born to parents Beverly and Grant, who encouraged their children’s interest in music, literature, and storytelling. Smith quickly discovered a love of poetry as well, which would eventually inform her writing. Her upbringing was marked by frequent moves to new cities, a heavy religious influence, and modest financial means.
By the time of her high school graduation in 1964, Smith and her family were living in New Jersey. After getting a job working in a factory, Smith quit to attend university. This pursuit was short-lived, however, as Smith soon dropped out to move to New York City in 1967.
Two years later, Smith would make one of the most impactful decisions of her early life: the choice to move to Paris. She went with her younger sister to busk and create performance art, and the rest, as they say, is history. Smith had discovered her calling as an artist.
Music Career
Upon Smith’s return to Manhattan in 1969, she immersed herself in the city’s art scene. She began co-writing plays with her partner Sam Shepard, who would later receive the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, among other accolades.
She also began writing and performing poetry at local venues around the city. Accompanied by several other musicians, Smith slowly began to transition from presenting spoken word poetry to more musical work.
Her overnight success came with the release of her debut album Horses in 1975, which was quickly regarded as a landmark work in both music and songwriting. It garnered her plentiful praise in particular for her surreal and avant-garde lyrics, many of which were written alongside Smith’s continual poetry writing.
In spite of this critical acclaim, her success was not to be constrained solely to the realm of music, and her literary talents would soon become celebrated in their own right.
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Literary Career
Smith’s passion for poetry writing has persisted throughout her career. In fact, writing has always been her passion, and she has stated that her career as a musician was never planned. Her first book of poetry, Seventh Heaven, was published in 1972. She quickly published several others, a persistent output that has continued over the last five decades.
In particular, Smith’s poetry has been celebrated for its raw and visceral quality. Often writing about spirituality, identity, and human emotion, her poetry is a beautiful exploration of the complexities of the human experience.
But Smith didn’t stop there. After a decades-long career as a musician, singer, songwriter, and poet, Smith published her first memoir, Just Kids, in 2010. The book is a gorgeous and heartwrenching recollection of Smith’s early life, focusing on her relationship with avant-garde photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
In it, she paints a vivid portrait of the New York City art scene in the 1960s and 1970s, highlighting their simultaneous rise from struggling creatives to celebrated and influential artists.
The book is also incredibly moving in that it fulfills a long-standing promise that Smith had made to Mapplethorpe. As the photographer was dying of complications from AIDS in the late 1980s, she made a deathbed promise to him to write a book about their friendship.
The book resonated with critics and readers alike, who praised Smith’s vivid and unique writing style. It even earned Smith the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2010.
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Her next memoir, M Train, was published in 2015 and focuses on a later period in her life. In it, Smith writes poignantly about the loss of several close loved ones, including her husband and brother. She also writes extensively about her creative process and the demands of making art while also inhabiting the identities of wife and mother. (The audiobook was even nominated for a Grammy award!)
In short: Smith’s writing is absolutely worth a read, particularly for fans of punk music, poetry, and feminist philosophy. You don’t need to know her music to be able to understand and enjoy her memoirs, so they are must-reads for anyone interested in autobiographies.
Influence and Impact
While Patti Smith’s influence is perhaps most obvious in the realm of music, her contributions to the literary world cannot be understated. Many well-known writers have cited her as an influence, including fantasy writing master Neil Gaiman.
On a cultural level, critics credit her memoirs in particular with reinvigorating an interest in the punk subculture, as well as inspiring other writers to explore the intersection between books and music. (Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid is a notable example of this trend.)
So whether you’re a punk rocker who’s been listening to Smith’s music, or a reader interested in the worlds of music and poetry, her writing absolutely has something to offer you. Her memoir, Just Kids, is an accessible and moving place to start, especially if you’re not familiar with her music.
As always, happy reading!
