ISBN 9780977742950, 128 pages, 20 images, 5 maps. Pub date: February 2009

Patti Smith’s New York tells the story of one of the most radical and enduringly popular musicians to come out of New York. As Smith’s personal and artistic odyssey unfolds, the book explores a city undergoing an equally radical transformation. Patti Smith’s New York takes readers through the squalid, bankrupt, but culturally dynamic streets of 1970's New York to today’s more stylish, more expensive, and more exclusive cultural capital.

The book follows Patti Smith from early haunts such as the Chelsea Hotel, where she lived with boyfriend Robert Mapplethorpe, to punk rock meccas such as CBGB and avant-garde art spaces throughout Greenwich Village and the lower East Side. As well as providing an intimate portrait of Patti Smith and New York’s bohemian community, Patti Smith’s New York offers surprising stories of New York neighborhoods and landmarks such as Central Park and the Museum of Modern Art. It offers a unique perspective on Patti Smith and New York—a perspective that will surprise even those who think they already know a lot about the musician and the city.

A lifelong New Yorker, Ellen Moynihan is managing editor of New York Tyrant, a literary magazine. As co-founder of the guerilla art collective House of Malcontents, she has had her work featured in the New York Post and New York magazine and as part of an exhibition at the Whitney Museum.

Available February 2009

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