Patti Smith program, 1973. De L'Ame Pour L'Ame (Of the Soul for the Soul): An Evening Honoring...Arthur Rimbaud, Good

Smith, Patti. New York:  , 1973. English, First Edition, Good single page sky blue, 14" x 8 1/2".

Original single sheet of ephemera on sky blue paper, program for event entitled, De L'Ame Pour L'Ame (Of the Soul for the Soul) measures 14" x 8 1/2".  Good, with some crinkling to the top third of the right side, as well as to the bottom corner, otherwise clean, sharp tips, no tears. A scarce piece of rock history associated with one of Patti Smith's earliest performances: an evening of poetry and music on the anniversary of Arthur Rimbaud's death. Said event (referenced in Smith's memoir, Just Kids) took place on November 4th, 1973 at the short-lived-but-influential queer discothèque, Le Jardin, in New York City's Hotel Diplomat. Smith's name doesn't appear on the program, but her presence is palpable in her (unsigned) line drawing of Rimbaud and the event's tell-tale corroborators, Lenny Kaye and Robert Mapplethorpe. Kaye, future member of the Patti Smith Group, is billed as guitarist alongside Bill Elliot on piano. In her book, Smith describes wearing an evening gown and feather boa, singing and reciting her own works and performing songs by Kurt Weil and Hank Ballard.  "Special appreciation to the Wartoke Concern, Robert Mapplethorpe [whose own first solo exhibition also occurred in 1973], Dennis Florio, Sharon Ensko, Sam Wagstaff [Mapplethorpe's longterm partner and patron], and Gotham Book Mart," which was around the corner from Scribner's bookstore where Smith and Mapplethorpe both worked.  Gotham Book Mart published Smith's third book of poems, Witt, and held a small exhibit of her drawings in conjunction with its release. Those who appreciate Smith's fascination with Rimbaud will especially enjoy this piece of ephemera, so dense as it is with personal meaning, an artifact from a momentous year in the lives of those involved. Provenance: from the collection of bookseller, Richard L. Press.