Patti Smith is transforming her popular Instagram feed into A Book of Days, which will be released Nov. 15 by Penguin. The book includes 365 photos meant to represent a year in Smith’s life of touring, visiting the graves of literary heroes such as Dylan Thomas and Sylvia Plath and hanging out with her kids and cat. Per Penguin:
In 2018, without any plan or agenda for what might happen next, Patti Smith posted her first Instagram photo: her hand with the simple message “Hello Everybody!” 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. Original to this book are vintage photographs: anniversary pearls, a mother’s keychain, and a husband’s Mosrite guitar. Here, too, are photos from Smith’s archives of life on and off the road, train stations, obscure cafés, a notebook always nearby. In wide-ranging yet intimate daily notations, Smith shares dispatches from her travels around the world.
Smith will support A Book of Days on a 12-date book tour beginning Nov. 14 at New York’s Strand Books. She will also play two shows with her band at Brooklyn Steel on Dec. 29-30, the latter of which is Smith’s 76th birthday.
A Book of Days follows Smith’s well-received prior books such as Just Kids and M Train.
Here are Patti Smith’s tour dates:
Nov. 14: New York (Strand Books)
Nov. 17: Washington, D.C. (Lisner Auditorium)
Nov. 18: Miami (Miami Book Fair)
Nov. 20: Chicago (Chicago Humanities Festival)
Nov. 21: Nashville (OZ Arts)
Nov. 22: Philadelphia (Free Library)
Nov. 28: San Francisco (Sydney Goldstein Theater)
Nov. 29: Santa Cruz, Calif. (Rio Theatre)
Nov. 30: San Rafael, Calif. (Dominican University of California)
Dec. 1: Portland, Ore. (Schnitzer Hall)
Dec. 2: Seattle (Town Hall)
Dec. 5: Los Angeles (Saban Theatre)
Dec. 29-30: Brooklyn, N.Y. (Brooklyn Steel – with her Band)
Leave a comment