Patti Smith has unveiled the cover of her next memoir, Bread of Angels.
The “People Have the Power” singer revealed the cover on Instagram, writing that it features a “graceful photograph” taken by artist Robert Mapplethorpe in 1979.
She adds that the photo was taken “in the same room where he shot the Horses cover,” referring to her 1975 debut album.
“This cover is a beautiful way to continue our lifelong collaboration,” she adds.
“Robert Mapplethorpe took this photograph at a deeply transitional moment. It was between the end of my public life as a performer and the beginning of my time in Detroit with my one true love, Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith,” she tells Vanity Fair. “Robert had taken an image with doves for the cover of the (1979) album Wave. Afterwards, I asked him to take another that would reflect the sentiment of the song ‘Dancing Barefoot,’ a love song for Fred and a farewell to the people. This is the photograph he took.”
Smith is set to release Bread of Angels on Nov. 4. It is available for preorder now.
Bread of Angels comes 15 years after the release of Smith’s first memoir, Just Kids, which documented her time in Manhattan in the ’70s and her relationship Mapplethorpe. It won the National Book Award in 2010.
According to the description, Bread of Angels is “the most intimate” of Smith’s memoirs, following the musician through her childhood in Philadelphia and South Jersey, her teenage years “when the first glimmers of art and romance take hold,” her marriage to Fred “Sonic” Smith and their family life, and more.
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