Patti Smith will take another look back in a new memoir, ‘Bread of Angels’

By: Hillel Italie, The Associated Press Posted: 7:35 AM CDT Wednesday, Apr. 9, 2025

NEW YORK (AP) — Even after publishing a handful of memoirs, including the classic “Just Kids,” Patti Smith has a lot more to say about her life.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Even after publishing a handful of memoirs, including the classic “Just Kids,” Patti Smith has a lot more to say about her life.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Even after publishing a handful of memoirs, including the classic “Just Kids,” Patti Smith has a lot more to say about her life.

The poet-writer-musician’s “Bread of Angels” will be published Nov. 4, Random House announced Wednesday. In “Just Kids,” winner of the National Book Award in 2010, Smith looked back on her early years in New York City and her romance and friendship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. In her new book, according to Random House, she reflects on her childhood “in working class Philadelphia and South Jersey,” her marriage to guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith, her move to a home in Michigan by Lake Saint Clair, to raise a family and her grief over the death of her husband, in 1994.

Even the book’s release date is deeply personal, coinciding with Mapplethorpe’s birthday and the anniversary of Smith’s death.

FILE - Patti Smith appears at the premiere of "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Aug. 28, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP, File)

“It took a decade to write this book, grappling with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime. I’m hoping that people will find something they need,” Smith said in a statement issued through Random House.

Smith’s other books include “M Train,”
“Year of the Monkey,” “Woolgathering” and “Devotion (Why I Write).”

Smith, 78, collapsed on stage in Brazil in January, and later wrote on Instagram that she suffered “some post migraine dizziness.” But besides her book, she is planning a tour this year to mark the 50th anniversary of her classic debut album, “Horses,” which she will perform in full. Last month, she was honored at Carnegie Hall, with guests ranging from Bruce Springsteen and Michael Stipe to Scarlett Johansson and Sean Penn.