Patti Smith, Part I

Just Kids (Ecco)

Poverty and insanity are terrible things—but then there is bohemian poverty and insanity, and these are infused with the romance of becoming an artist. In the first of this two-part interview, Patti Smith speaks of her youth in New York, when she and Robert Mapplethorpe sought to manifest their artistic ambitions. (Part II)

Patti Smith'sJust Kids has won the 2010 National Book Award for non-fiction