one of the key writers of the post-war era is no ordinary bookworm. In fact, after her incredible memoir The Year of the Monkey and Just Kids, it has made punk poet Patti Smith one of the most perfect writers of the decade. Through her memoir and her poetry, Smith has proven to be a visceral writer and it is clear from the list below that she is also an avid reader.
smith has numerous literary books credited to his name, most notably the aforementioned titles. Throughout a supremely dominant career, in which her relationship with her words has continued to fascinate, the punk singer-poet has made no secret of her enthusiasm for the written word. as enthusiastic a writer and reader as the world of music has to offer.
You are reading: Patti smith favorite books
If you’ve ever read his memoir as a child, you’ll remember the first words: “I fell completely in love with the book,” he writes in the first few chapters about his love of the written word. “I wanted to read them all, and the things I read gave me new longings.”
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Exploring some of the works that have helped shape Smith’s literary vision, the artist has commended the likes of beat poet and novelist jack kerouac, epic novelist joseph conrad, and seductive french poet arthur rimbaud, among other recognizable figures of literature. world.
In addition to the slightly more predictable names, however, there are also some more challenging suggestions like Roberto Bolano striving for the wild boys, for example. Smith describes the following about the book: “every time I read Bolaño I feel so inspired, I just want to write… he is a genius: the expansion he creates, how he relates one book to another, he has established a new template for writing.”
speaking about smith’s love for sylvia plath, she said: “my copy of ariel [was] given to me when i was twenty years old. Ariel then became the book of my life, drawing me to a poet with hair worthy of a Breck commercial and the incisive powers of observation of a surgeon cutting out her own heart. With little effort I perfectly visualized my ariel. slim, faded black fabric, which I opened in my mind, noticing my youthful signature on the cream guard. I turned the pages, checking the shape of each poem.”
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There are also incredible readings by highly acclaimed writers such as Hermann Hesse, William Blake, William Burroughs, Albert Camus, Oscar Wilde, J.D. salinger and many more. is a remarkably impressive list of literary heavyweights.
now, if you’re hoping to get some of his inspiration, a list has surfaced that smith apparently handed out during the melbourne international art festival. in it, the list hides some of his most treasured books.
see full list below.
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patti smith’s favorite books of all time:
- mikhail bulgakov’s master and margarita
- hermann hesse’s journey to the east
- hermann hesse’s set of glass beads
- heart of darkness by joseph conrad
- moby dick by herman melville
- billy budd by herman melville
- songs of innocence by william blake
- la nature boys by william burroughs 2666 – roberto bolano
- ariel – sylvia plath
- allen ginsberg howl
- a season in hell by arthur rimbaud
- illuminations by arthur rimbaud
- wittgenstein’s poker by david edmonds and john eidinow
- villette by charlotte bronte
- the trial by brion gysin
- book of cain by alexander trocchi
- coriolanus by william shakespeare
- the happy prince by oscar wilde
- the sheltering sky by paul bowles
- counter interpretation of susan sontag
- the seekers of oblivion by isabelle everhardt
- the women of cairo by gérard de ne rval
- under the volcano by malcolm low ry
- dead souls by nikolai gogol
- the book of restlessness by fernando pessoa
- la death of virgil by hermann broch
- lifting high the roof beam, carpenters by j.d. salinger
- franny and zooey by j.d. salinger
- the scarlet letter by nathaniel hawthorne
- a drunken night by rené daumal
- swann in love by marcel proust
- death albert camus’s happy
- albert camus’s first man
- virginia woolf’s waves
- jack kerouac’s big sur
- anything by hp lovecraft
- anything from w.g. sebald
- the thief’s diary or anything by jean genet
- the arcades project or anything by walter benjamin
- poet in new york by federico garcía lorca
- the lost honor of katharina blum by heinrich böll
- the palm wine drinker by amos tutuola
- ice or anything by anna kavan
- the divine proportion for him. huntley
- nadja by andré breton