National Book Award for Patti Smith

On Wednesday night Patti Smith won the National Book Award for nonfiction for “Just Kids,” the memoir of her relationship with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. 

Accepting the award Patti choked up as she recalled her days as a clerk in the Scribner’s bookstore in Manhattan,

“I dreamed of having a book of my own, of writing one that I could put on a shelf,” she said. “Please, no matter how we advance technologically, please don’t abandon the book. There is nothing in our material world more beautiful than the book.”