Punk rock queen Patti Smith's first autobiography, "Just Kids," and poetry collection, "Auguries of Innocence," will be released on Friday, December 21st. "Just Kids" is a memoir of Smith's youth set in New York, chronicling the 20 years from her meeting with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe to their separation. In 1967, the summer Coltrane died, the skinny 20-year-old came to New York alone with the goal of becoming an artist. There, she had a fateful encounter with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who would later become her irreplaceable partner. She subsequently developed connections with key figures of the 1960s and 1970s counterculture, including William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Andy Warhol, Salvador Dalí, Sam Shepard, Jim Carroll, and Todd Rundgren. Winner of the 2010 National Book Award for Nonfiction. A film adaptation is also planned.

"Signs of Innocence" is a collection of poems by Patti Smith filled with love for those who have been given life. The 28 poems, filled with tender gazes directed at loved ones such as her late husband and younger siblings, were written between the 1980s and 2007.

[Book Information]
"Just Kids"
Translated by: Nimura Junko, Kobayashi Kaoru
Publication date: December 21, 2012
Publisher: Kawade Shobo Shinsha
Price: 2,499 yen

"Signs of Innocence"
Translated by: Azuma Reiko
Publication date: December 21, 2012
Publisher: Kawade Shobo Shinsha
Price: 2,000 yen