Patti Smith details discovering the identity of her biological father in her new memoir, Bread of Angels.
According to People, Smith writes that she “wept” after learning that she and her sister were actually half sisters upon taking a DNA test in 2012.
“The results of our test put a great strain on my thought processes and for some time, I was unable to write,” Smith says. “Every morning, without fail, I had sat in a local café with my notebook and coffee, now I was obliged to question the validity of what I had written.”
Smith’s parentage had been questioned throughout her life — her maternal great-grandmother maintained that her son, Patti’s great-uncle, was actually her father.
“I had all but accepted the fact that I was fathered by my mother’s Uncle Joe,” Smith writes.
Smith then turned to her daughter, who she’d given birth to at age 20 and placed for adoption before reconnecting years later, for help in tracking down her biological father. They learned that his name was actually Sidney.
“I knew he was my father before I saw his face,” Smith writes.
Smith never got to meet Sidney, as he died young. His widow, who lived into her 90s, had also passed.
“I wasn’t sure what to do with this information, because I wanted the book I was writing to be very truthful, and all of a sudden, I had a parallel truth,” Smith tells People. “And I felt if I didn’t write about it, then it felt like truth was compromised.”
Bread of Angels is out now.
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