---
product_id: 57544631
title: "Just Kids: The National Book Award-winning memoir (Bloomsbury Paperbacks)"
price: "17213CFA"
currency: XOF
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.sn/products/57544631-just-kids-the-national-book-award-winning-memoir-bloomsbury-paperbacks
store_origin: SN
region: Senegal
---

# National Book Award Winner Same-day dispatch before noon No-quibble returns Just Kids: The National Book Award-winning memoir (Bloomsbury Paperbacks)

**Price:** 17213CFA
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Summary

> 📚 Own the legendary love story that shaped punk and art culture—before everyone else does!

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Just Kids: The National Book Award-winning memoir (Bloomsbury Paperbacks)
- **How much does it cost?** 17213CFA with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sn](https://www.desertcart.sn/products/57544631-just-kids-the-national-book-award-winning-memoir-bloomsbury-paperbacks)

## Best For

- Customers looking for quality international products

## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Key Features

- • **Effortless Returns:** Change your mind? No quibbles, no hassle—returns made simple to keep your shopping stress-free.
- • **Award-Winning Memoir:** Dive into a National Book Award-winning story that defines a generation.
- • **Lightning-Fast Delivery:** Order before noon and get your copy dispatched the very same day—because your next read can't wait.
- • **Pristine NewMint Condition:** Receive your book in flawless condition, perfectly packaged to impress your shelf and your guests.
- • **Unmatched Cultural Time Capsule:** Experience the gritty, chic New York art scene of the late '60s and '70s through the eyes of Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe.

## Overview

Just Kids is Patti Smith’s critically acclaimed memoir, winner of the National Book Award, offering an evocative and intimate portrait of her relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe and the vibrant New York art scene of the late 1960s and 70s. Delivered in pristine condition with same-day dispatch and hassle-free returns, this memoir is a must-have for anyone passionate about art, music, and cultural history.

## Description

Winner of the Non-Fiction National Book Award Patti Smith's definitive memoir is an evocative, honest and moving coming-of-age story of her extraordinary relationship with the artist Robert Mapplethorpe. 'Sharp, elegiac and finely crafted' Sunday Times 'Terrifically evocative ... The most spellbinding and diverting portrait of funky-but-chic New York in the late '60s and '70s that any alumnus has committed to print' New York Times 'Render, harrowing, often hilarious' Vogue In 1967, a chance meeting between two young people led to a romance and a lifelong friendship that would carry each to international success never dreamed of. The backdrop is Brooklyn, Chelsea Hotel, Max's Kansas City, Scribner's Bookstore, Coney Island, Warhol's Factory and the whole city resplendent. Among their friends, literary lights, musicians and artists such as Harry Smith, Bobby Neuwirth, Allen Ginsberg, Sandy Daley, Sam Shepherd, William Burroughs, etc. It was a heightened time politically and culturally; the art and music worlds exploding and colliding. In the midst of all this two kids made a pact to always care for one another. Scrappy, romantic, committed to making art, they prodded and provided each other with faith and confidence during the hungry years--the days of cous-cous and lettuce soup. Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. Beautifully written, this is a profound portrait of two young artists, often hungry, sated only by art and experience. And an unforgettable portrait of New York, her rich and poor, hustlers and hellions, those who made it and those whose memory lingers near.

Review: Coney Island babies... - Really beautiful and touching book, which greatly exceeded my expectations. This isn't a book about Patti Smith, or her music, nor even about Robert Mapplethorpe, though obviously there's plenty about them and their work between these covers. It's a book about their relationship as artists and lovers as an entity in its own right, and as such it's one of the finest love stories you will ever read - a mostly platonic story for sure, but no less powerful for all that. You put the book down feeling that he was surely her 'other half', and she his - that they made one another whole, as people as well as artists. The writing is never sentimental, even when it's dealing with Robert's untimely end - it's crisp and hard-edged, but never prosaic, and the more powerful for it. Her recollections of tough times in New York around the turn of the 70s and growing up in places like the Chelsea Hotel and CBGBs before they became tourist destinations are captured with an artist's clear eye and are a valuable addition in themselves to other memoirs of those times. But it's the story of Robert and Patti that rightly dominates. A very moving, life-affirming memoir, and highly recommended to anyone with even a passing interest in their work and those times.
Review: Inspirational, beautiful - I would recommend - What a wonderful and immersive read. I was captivated and totally immersed in their lives and culture from 50's/60's america through to how their lives progressed, developed, their creative processes, their struggles and triumphs, the people they met, the scenes and 'to be' stars of the age; the search for meaning and expression; a down to earth, honest living, emotive story which continues into today. It really made me realise that anyone can do anything if they put themselves to it. Anyone who has an interest for art, music, relationships and culture, especially in/from 60's US and Paris onward will sure to be taken by this. For those wanting a glimmer of hope and inspiration; to see honesty, love, support; to be brought to simple beautiful moments in life and how we exercise our passions, motivations and each find a place to fit individually but also together. Would highly recommend.

## Features

- New
- Mint Condition
- Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
- Guaranteed packaging
- No quibbles returns

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | 2,480 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) 2 in Punk Music 4 in Music History & Criticism (Books) 7 in Rock Music |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 11,948 Reviews |

## Images

![Just Kids: The National Book Award-winning memoir (Bloomsbury Paperbacks) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61o0BCI+1wL.jpg)

## Available Options

This product comes in different **Media Format** options.

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Coney Island babies...
*by R***N on 22 April 2011*

Really beautiful and touching book, which greatly exceeded my expectations. This isn't a book about Patti Smith, or her music, nor even about Robert Mapplethorpe, though obviously there's plenty about them and their work between these covers. It's a book about their relationship as artists and lovers as an entity in its own right, and as such it's one of the finest love stories you will ever read - a mostly platonic story for sure, but no less powerful for all that. You put the book down feeling that he was surely her 'other half', and she his - that they made one another whole, as people as well as artists. The writing is never sentimental, even when it's dealing with Robert's untimely end - it's crisp and hard-edged, but never prosaic, and the more powerful for it. Her recollections of tough times in New York around the turn of the 70s and growing up in places like the Chelsea Hotel and CBGBs before they became tourist destinations are captured with an artist's clear eye and are a valuable addition in themselves to other memoirs of those times. But it's the story of Robert and Patti that rightly dominates. A very moving, life-affirming memoir, and highly recommended to anyone with even a passing interest in their work and those times.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Inspirational, beautiful - I would recommend
*by K***Y on 2 August 2019*

What a wonderful and immersive read. I was captivated and totally immersed in their lives and culture from 50's/60's america through to how their lives progressed, developed, their creative processes, their struggles and triumphs, the people they met, the scenes and 'to be' stars of the age; the search for meaning and expression; a down to earth, honest living, emotive story which continues into today. It really made me realise that anyone can do anything if they put themselves to it. Anyone who has an interest for art, music, relationships and culture, especially in/from 60's US and Paris onward will sure to be taken by this. For those wanting a glimmer of hope and inspiration; to see honesty, love, support; to be brought to simple beautiful moments in life and how we exercise our passions, motivations and each find a place to fit individually but also together. Would highly recommend.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ "I preferred an artist who transformed his time, not mirrored it."
*by J***K on 3 April 2011*

I was a great fan of Patti Smith in my younger days but as she has grown older she has become an example of the kind of New Age weirdness and political correctness that make my teeth grind.* So it was with some trepidation that I picked her memoirs of her time with Robert Mapplethorpe, expecting peace and love-type psychobabble. Instead, it was a well-written, disciplined account of her relationship with him and early life and mercifully free from her political opinions. She also resisted the temptation to get over-emotional about some episodes in her life, such as giving away her baby daughter when she was 19, and her description of how she and Mapplethorpe went their separate ways is refreshingly sober. Her obsession with French badboy poet Rimbaud becomes a bit tedious especially as she does not explain why he was so important to her. Nor does she give any good reason why she and Mapplethorpe chose to live in a cramped room in the Chelsea Hotel next to the room where Dylan Thomas died. The quality slips at times and name dropping abounds - Dylan (Bob, not the Welsh one), William Burroughs, Salvador Dali, Janis Joplin, Lou Reed and Alan Ginzburg** - but overall the book is low key, factual and fairly convincing. There are also incisive barbs such as her comment comparing Mapplethorpe with Andy Warhol: "I preferred an artist who transformed his time, not mirrored it." It's difficult to believe she was as innocent and naïve as she makes out. Patti Smith obviously regards herself as a "writer, performer and visual artist". However, as far as I am concerned she is a rock singer and will be judged as such. I`ll never forget the impact her first album had on me when I was a student in Edinburgh in the early/mid 1970s and life was founded on rock and roll and first love. * Check out her site if you don't believe me. ** Who thought she was a boy the first time he met her.

## Frequently Bought Together

- (smith).just kids
- The Bell Jar (Modern Classics)
- Milk Teeth

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*Product available on Desertcart Senegal*
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*Last updated: 2026-09-14*