Reflections on meeting Patti Smith

[Editor's note] As previously reported, I had the pleasure of meeting Patti Smith yesterday. She was at Books & Books in Coral Gables signing copies of her newest memoir, Woolgathering.

Our encounter was brief but memorable. She was very gracious and humored my star-struck fandom for her work. She gave me some words of encouragement on the writing front and I made her chuckle with a lame joke. Despite my profuse sweating, I think it was a success.

In Woolgathering, Smith revisits the most sacred experiences of her early years, with truths so vivid they border on the surreal. The author entwines her childhood self—and its "clear, unspeakable joy"—with memories both real and envisioned from her twenties on New York's MacDougal Street, the street of cafés.

Woolgathering was completed, in Michigan, on Patti Smith's 45th birthday and originally published in a slim volume from Raymond Foye's Hanuman Books. Twenty years later, New Directions is proud to present it in an augmented edition, featuring writing that was omitted from the book's first printing, along with new photographs and illustrations. Woolgathering celebrates the sacred nature of creation with Smith’s beautiful style, acclaimed as “glorious” (NPR), “spellbinding” (Booklist), “rare and ferocious” (Salon), and “shockingly beautiful” (New York Magazine).