Bread of Angels by Patti Smith
Visual, performing and recording artist, poet, punk priestess, songwriter, and memoirist Patti Smith has written Bread of Angels, her third and possibly most intimate, heart-rending, haunting autobiography. Her seminal, critically acclaimed album Horses debuted 50 years ago and is widely regarded as one of the top 100 recordings by Billboard, Rolling Stone and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2009, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Recording Registry. The original album was remastered and released in a special two-LP vinyl edition on October 10, 2025 with the addition of unreleased outtakes and rarities.
In celebration of this golden anniversary, Patti Smith and her band have been performing the album in its entirety, touring extensively throughout 2025 with 51 concerts, some with multiple dates booked in larger cities. The tour will resume in mid-January, 2026 in the United States and eight cities in Europe scheduled thus far. Her band includes original members’ guitarist Lenny Kaye and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty who are joined by her son guitarist Jackson Smith. Her daughter Jesse Paris Smith has participated as pianist and vocalist in encore performances. Concurrently, Patti Smith has been giving a limited number of in-person and virtual book readings and signings of the impactful Bread of Angels. At 79, she dances across the stage with the ethereal grace and exuberance of the young Punk Poet Rocker although without the full-to-floor back arches effortlessly executed 50 years ago. Her writing remains as impassioned as ever, packed with universal messages.
A Life Forged in Art and Devastating Loss
This memoir spans a broader spectrum of her life than the previous two books, Just Kids and M Train which covered shorter, specific time periods. The earlier years of poverty endured by this nearly-starving artist were also replete with youthful potential, creativity, romance and opportunity. Inspired by the poetry of Rimbaud and the lyrics of Bob Dylan, Patti Smith moved to New York City in 1967 with a single suitcase, a book of poetry and her massive imagination. The beginnings of her astonishing career and friendships with remarkable people including Robert Mapplethorpe, Sam Shepard, poets Gregory Corso and Alan Ginsberg, and fellow Chelsea Hotel resident and mentor William S. Burroughs are chronicled.
In Bread of Life, she expresses the profoundly deep mourning that welled up from the losses of first love and forever friend Robert Mapplethorpe in 1989, her soul mate and husband Fred “Sonic” Smith in 1994, followed a month later by beloved younger brother Todd of a sudden, unanticipated massive stroke. Caring for her children Jackson who was 12 years old and Jesse Paris who was 7 years old and the comfort and support of friends who encouraged her to resume recording and performing got her through the worst despair. Her husband Fred who loved motorcycles had promised their son a ride for his 13th birthday but did not live to see the day. However, old friend Bruce Springsteen with whom she wrote the 1977 classic song Because the Night showed up on his motorcycle to honor Fred’s promise. Guitarist and activist Lenny Kaye was the first to encourage Patti to put her poetry to music. Their collaboration began in 1971, continued through their jams and early gigs at CBGB, and their friendship is eternal.
The Making of a Creative Force
Bread of Angels begins in her early childhood when she and her beloved siblings lived with their lower working class parents in a condemned housing project in South Jersey. Her upbringing became stricter when her mother converted to Jehovah’s Witnesses. Fables, storytelling, books and drawings fueled her imagination and sustained her. This memoir chronicles the “Detroit years”; the fourteen years of her successful marriage to Fred “Sonic” Smith ending in his early death at age 46. They lived a alongside a canal enjoying a contemplative life, creating music and Patti writing stories in the early morning hours before their young children awoke. It continues into the present with deep examination of the losses, personal tragedies and profound grief woven through a life filled with gratitude enriched by marriage, children and widowhood, sustained always by reflecting and writing and the resumption of her career as a recording and performing artist.
Just Kids won the 2010 National Book Award for Nonfiction while M Train was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album. Patti Smith has written numerous well-regarded works of poetry and collaborated on the play Cowboy Mouth with the late Sam Shepard.
Robert Mapplethorpe’s photograph of Patti Smith with her black jacket slung over her shoulder graced the cover of the Horses album. Despite his death, their connection remains true and his photograph of the poet priestess wearing a Victorian lace dress he purchased for her adorns the cover of Bread of Angels. This memoir and his photographs are the work of geniuses.
About Patti Smith:
Patti Smith is the author of the National Book Award winner Just Kids, as well as Woolgathering, M Train, Year of the Monkey, and Collected Lyrics. Her seminal album Horses has been hailed as one of the top 100 albums of all time. Her global exhibitions include Strange Messenger, Land 250, Camera Solo, and Evidence. In 2005, the French Ministry of Culture awarded Smith the title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres. Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, Smith is also the recipient of the ASCAP Founders Award, Sweden’s Polar Music Prize, the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award, and the Legion d’honneur.
