Just Kids, Patti Smith’s autobiography of her early struggles as a poet and musician with partner Robert Mapplethorpe has won America’s National Book Awards in the non-fiction category. The beautifully written book details their relationship together, living in poverty in New York City and their struggles and self doubt while trying to get their careers off the ground. Mapplethorpe would go on to be one of the most acclaimed and controversial photographers of the Twentieth Century before succumbing to AIDS in 1989, while Smith is revered as a punk icon for seminal albums such as Horses and Easter. Accepting the award, Smith told the audience at the ceremony “I dreamed of having a book of my own, of writing one that I could put on a shelf. Please, no matter how we advance technologically, please don’t abandon the book. There is nothing in our material world more beautiful than the book.”
