"THE BEGINNING OF THAT SOMETHING ELSE": FIRST EDITION OF DEVOTION, SIGNED BY PATTI SMITH
SMITH, Patti. Devotion. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, (2017). Small octavo (5 by 7-1/4 inches), original red cloth, original dust jacket.
First edition, one of the prestigious Why I Write Series, featuring Patti Smith's 2016 Windham-Campbell Lecture, signed on the title page by her, with eleven photographic illustrations (nine full page).
In Devotion, Smith offers her own unique perspective on "the essential mystery of the creative act… Her open and authentic enthusiasm for her literary idols—Rimbaud, Camus, Blake—has always been an endearing part of her persona; here, she elevates an encounter with Camus' last manuscript into 'a call to action… to write something fine, that would be better than I am.' Or, as the book's final lines have it: 'Why do we write?… Because we cannot simply live'" (Washington Post). This volume in the Why I Write series contains an expanded version of Smith's Windham-Campbell Lecture, delivered in September 2016 at the Fourth Annual Windham-Campbell Prize festival. Bookseller "Autographed" tag to dust jacket front panel.
A fine signed copy.