A Book of Days – Smith Patti (2024)

A deeply moving and brilliantly idiosyncratic visual book of days by Patti Smith, the National Book Award-winning author of Just Kids and M Train. More than 365 images trace Smith’s singular aesthetic, inspired by her wildly popular Instagram account. In 2018, without a plan or agenda for what might happen next, Smith posted her first Instagram photo: her hand accompanied by the simple message “Hello Everybody!” Known for using her beloved Land Camera 250, Smith began sharing images from her phone, including portraits of her children, her radiator, her boots and her Abyssinian cat, Cairo. Followers immediately connected with these miniature windows into Smith’s world: photographs of her daily coffee, the books she was reading, and the graves of beloved heroes such as William Blake, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, Simone Weil and 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 distinctive aesthetic through images charting her passions, devotions, obsessions and whims. Original to this book are vintage photographs of anniversary pearls, a mother’s keychain and a husband’s Mosrite guitar, along with previously unseen images from life on and off the road, train stations, obscure cafés and a notebook that is always close at hand. In wide-ranging yet intimate daily notes, Smith shares dispatches from her travels around the world. With 365 photographs taking you through a single year, this book offers a new way to experience the expansive mind of the visionary poet, writer and performer. Hopeful, elegiac and playful, it includes an introduction by Smith exploring her documentary process and presents an inspirational map of an artist’s life for deeply uncertain times.