David Bridges
Patti Smith announced the Nov. 15 publication of A Book of Days, inspired by her Instagram feed. She began using the platform in 2018 “without any plan or agenda for what might happen next,” publishers Penguin Random House said in a statement. That has resulted in the creation of a “deeply moving and brilliantly idiosyncratic visual book of days by the National Book Award-winning author of Just Kids and M Train.”
The statement noted, “Known for shooting with her beloved Land Camera 250, Smith started posting images from her phone including portraits of her kids, her radiator, her boots and her Abyssinian cat, Cairo. Followers felt an immediate affinity with these miniature windows into Smith’s world, photographs of her daily coffee, the books she’s reading, the graves of beloved heroes — William Blake, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, Simone Weil, Albert Camus.
“Over time, a coherent story of a life devoted to art took shape, and more than a million followers responded to Smith’s unique aesthetic in images that chart her passions, devotions, obsessions and whims.”
The book contains vintage images including “anniversary pearls, a mother’s keychain and a husband’s Mosrite guitar” and “photos from Smith’s archives of life on and off the road: train stations, obscure cafes, a notebook always nearby. In wide-ranging yet intimate daily notations, Smith shares dispatches from her travels around the world.”
Smith will undertake a 12-date book tour on Nov. 14, while marking her 76th birthday with two concerts at Brooklyn Street Steel in New York on Dec. 29 and 30.
Patti Smith ‘A Book of Days’ Tour
11/14 – New York – Strand Books at Cooper Union
11/17 – Washington – Lisner Auditorium
11/18 – Miami Book Fair
11/20 – Chicago Humanities Festival
11/21 – Nashville – OZ Arts
11/22 – Philadelphia – Free Library
11/28 – San Francisco – Sydney Goldstein Theater
11/29 – Santa Cruz – Rio Theatre
11/30 – San Rafael – Dominican University of California
12/01 – Portland – Arlene Schnitzer Hall at Cooper Union
12/02 – Seattle Town Hall
12/05 – Los Angeles – Saban Theatre
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Tessa Everly
