Name: Devotion (Why i Write)
Price: 225.00 ZAR
Availability: InStock
Author: Patti Smith
ISBN: 9780300240221

Type

Physical Book

Author

Patti Smith

Publisher

Yale University Press

Year

2018

Language

English

Pages

120

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

17.3 x 11.9 x 1.0 cm

Weight

1.05

ISBN13

9780300240221

Synopsis "Devotion (Why i Write)"

"Devotion is short enough to devour at one enjoyable sitting and thought-provoking enough to deserve re-reading."--Suzi Feay, Financial Times "Devotion shows rather than tells what it means to give a life to writing. "--Katherine Cooper, Hyperallergic A work of creative brilliance may seem like magic--its source a mystery, its impact unexpectedly stirring. How does an artist accomplish such an achievement, connecting deeply with an audience never met? In this groundbreaking book, one of our culture's beloved artists offers a detailed account of her own creative process, inspirations, and unexpected connections. Patti Smith, a National Book Award-winning author, first presents an original and beautifully crafted tale of obsession--a young skater who lives for her art, a possessive collector who ruthlessly seeks his prize, a relationship forged of need both craven and exalted. She then takes us on a second journey, exploring the sources of her story. We travel through the South of France to Camus's house, and visit the garden of the great publisher Gallimard where the ghosts of Mishima, Nabokov, and Genet mingle. Smith tracks down Simone Weil's grave in a lonely cemetery, hours from London, and winds through the nameless Paris streets of Patrick Modiano's novels. Whether writing in a café or a train, Smith generously opens her notebooks and lets us glimpse the alchemy of her art and craft in this arresting and original book on writing. The Why I Write series is based on the Windham-Campbell Lectures, delivered annually to commemorate the awarding of the Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes at Yale University.

Patti Smith

(Author)

View Author's Page

Patti Smith (Chicago, 1946) is a writer, singer, and visual artist. She gained significant recognition in the 1970s with the spread of her poetry and rock music. She has released twelve albums, including Horses, considered one of the top hundred of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. Smith held her first drawing exhibition at the Gotham Book Mart in 1973, was represented by the Robert Miller Gallery for three decades, and her retrospective exhibitions have taken place at the Andy Warhol Museum, the Cartier Foundation, and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Among her books, it is worth highlighting the story of her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe: Just Kids (Lumen, 2010), awarded the National Book Award, Witt, Babel, Woolgathering (Lumen, 2014), The Coral Sea (Lumen, 2012), Auguries of Innocence (Lumen, 2019), M Train (Lumen, 2016), Devotion (Lumen, 2018), Year of the Monkey (Lumen, 2020), and Book of Days (Lumen, 2023). In 2005, the French Minister of Culture awarded her the title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, the highest honor given to an artist by the French Republic. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. Smith married musician Fred Sonic Smith in Detroit in 1980. They had a son, Jackson, and a daughter, Jesse. The author, who in 2020 received the Pen America Literary Service Award, resides in New York.

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