Patti Smith in the spotlight in Paris

Patti Smith’s admirers are delighted this fall. The singer, poet, writer and musician, author of thirteen albums including Horses (1976) and the autobiographical story Just Kids (National Book Award in 2010), abounds with projects in France in the coming weeks. At the heart of his visit to Paris at the end of September: the simultaneous publication of two beautiful works by Gallimard.

“A Book of Days”

A book of daysalready released in the United States and which appears on September 28 in France, is a marvelous work of 366 captioned photos to discover the great figures, places and small details of his personal pantheon. There we find the photos that she regularly posts on her Instagram account and her luminous writing, which gives thanks in a few words to everything that is dear to her: her glasses (“without which I could not read”) to the poet Arthur Rimbaud, of course, who has obsessed him since he was 16. We meet many other French people there, from Charles Baudelaire to Jean Genet, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean Cocteau or Guillaume Apollinaire, but also close personalities such as Nico, Bob Dylan or Allen Ginsberg. Places, such as the Rimbaud family farm in Chuffilly-Roche (Ardennes) which she acquired, as well as many of her favorite objects, to which she lends “a certain power“, surprise on every page. To leaf through daily to celebrate life day after day and ward off the anxiety-provoking acceleration of the times.

“A Season in Hell” by Arthur Rimbaud, edition expanded with photographs, drawings and writings by Patti Smith

As we celebrate 150 years since the publication of Uno season in hell by Arthur Rimbaud, published independently in October 1873, Patti Smith was invited by Gallimard to create an expanded edition in the Grande Blanche illustrated collection, around this collection of poetry which struck him as a teenager. “A season in Hell was the drug of my youth, the elixir containing the tools and method to overthrow false idols. Such is the exhilarating power of poetry.”, writes the American. To reflect this particular and intimate relationship with Rimbaud, Patti Smith has entirely designed this beautiful large format work (25×32.5 cm) to also be published on September 28, in which she compares Rimbaud’s poems with episodes from his own story thanks to drawings, photos, documents and unpublished handwritten texts which she wrote in her beautiful cursive handwriting.

Exhibition of photographs, writings and drawings at the Gallimard gallery

As a preview of these two works, you can now (and until October 7) go and contemplate, at the Galerie Gallimard (Paris 7th), a selection of around fifty photos and texts which are extracted from it. We can also admire in large format the photo of Patti Smith holding in her hand the revolver with which Paul Verlaine shot his lover Arthur Rimbaud on July 10, 1873 in Belgium. A revolver that she was unable to acquire but which was lent to her. “It’s a six-shot Lefaucheux revolver of seven millimeter caliber. (…) VErlaine, out of despair, lets out a cry and fires twice at the object of her beautiful torment. The first bullet hits Rimbaud in the left wrist“, writes Patti Smith. “I held this revolver in my bare hands, witness to so much love and suffering“, she adds. It is also after this episode that Rimbaud will begin writing the gem A season in Hell.

Literary performance at the Odéon, Théâtre de l’Europe

The singer and musician will also present her Book of days during a unique literary performance on October 2 at the Odéon, Théâtre de l’Europe. Patti Smith will draw from the 366 photographs in this work, which will be projected on stage, and will evoke her inspirations and the corners of her universe. A necessarily fascinating dive into his psyche, his journey and his very particular aesthetic. This literary ballad will include musical interludes provided by two musicians, his son Jackson Smith and Tony Shanahan, both guitarists. Note that copies autographed by Patti Smith ofA book of days and D’A season in Hell will be on sale exclusively in the theater foyer before and after the performance.

• “A book of days” (Gallimard, 400 pages, €26.50), published September 28
• “A season in hell, expanded edition” (Gallimard, 176 pages, €45) published on 28 september
• Exhibition until October 7 at the Galerie Gallimard, at 30-32 rue de l’Université 75007 Paris
• Literary performance on October 2 at 8 p.m. at the Odéon Théâtre de l’Europe (1h30, not translated from English, prices from €7 to €28)