Patti Smith Nominated For National Book Award

Rock royalty Patti Smith has been nominated for the National Book Award in the non-fiction category for the memoir about her long friendship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe entitled Just Kids. The National Book Foundation provides the following synopsis of the tome:

In Just Kids, Patti Smith’s first book of prose, the legendary American artist offers a never-before-seen glimpse of her remarkable relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the epochal days of New York City and the Chelsea Hotel in the late sixties and seventies. An honest and moving story of youth and friendship, Smith brings the same unique, lyrical quality to Just Kids as she has to the rest of her formidable body of work—from her influential 1975 album Horses to her visual art and poetry.

Below is a video of Patti reading an excerpt from the book, recalling how Mapplethorpe shared the triumph of Smith's 1978 hit "Because The Night." An impromptu, very sweet a cappella performance follows.