Smith, Patti

Devotion

New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017. First Printing. Hardcover. Signed by Patti Smith. “In this stirring book, one of our culture’s most inspiring artists offers an intimate account of her own creative process….Illumination comes as Smith journeys to the south of France to Camus’s house, tracks down Simone Weil’s grave in an Ashford cemetery on the outskirts of London, and haunts the winding nameless streets of Paris. Whether writing in a café or on a train, Smith generously opens her notebooks and lets us glimpse the alchemy of her work in this arresting book on writing and why we write” (Qtd. from Front Flap copy). A delight for all manner of Patti Smith (b. 1946) fans, to be sure, but especially delightful to the writers among them—and whether hobbyist or vocationally-oriented, “serious poet” is no matter here. Smith here achieves that rare feat of nutritively instructing without once lapsing into didactic fanaticism. While not without maxims, helpful bits of advice and explicit suggestion-instructions about how to actually get pen to paper and wrest duality from the void (as Ray Manzarek would put it), Patti also instructs when she doesn’t intend to. She seems to believe “teaching” is more about living up to one’s street cred. As Duchamp advised, “Art is all a matter of personality.” Being a writer is about embodying your principles; it’s not a “day-job,” or a nametag. Patti gets it. [ISBN: 978-0-300-21862-6]. Hardcover in unclipped dust-jacket: First Edition, though not explicated as such on copyright page; First Printing, as indicated by number sequence thereon. The collectibility of this copy is further endowed by the presence of Smith’s infamously indeterminate signature — as unrepentant and individualistic as she herself is (see photos). In very fine condition with only minute shelf-wear to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers; alluringly clean. Dust-jacket in very fine condition with only mild shelf-wear to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine; a few tiny constellations of rubbing to same. Very Fine / Fine. [Item #5365]

Price: $150.00