Mapplethorpe" - Unbound Galley Proof from Mapplethorpe's Studio, with a letter of provenance from Patti Smith

New York: Random House, 1992. Galley Proof. Used; Like New/Used; Like New. Hardcover with original dust jacket.  382 pp.  280 duotone photograph plates.  Published three years after Mapplethorpe's early death, Mapplethorpe was the definitive chronicle of the portrait photographer's work.  The present unbound galley proofs was sent to Glover by musician Patti Smith, who personally obtained this preliminary copy from Mapplethorpe's studio.  Includes Autograph Letter Signed from the poet and musician to Glover which reads, in full, "Hi Tony, / Sorry this took so long, it's the unbound sheets from Robert's Studio.  So it came from a good place.  Thank you for the Rimbaud, and your work.  All the best to you and yours."  The original mailing envelope includes an annotation in Smith's hand reading "This has been sitting around for months.  Sorry."  In fine condition.
"Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe had a unique relationship: they were friends, lovers, artistic collaborators and soul mates. Mapplethorpe and Smith met in 1967 and quickly become lovers; they would live with one another for the next few years. The years they spent together proved to be formative to their artistic development; while Mapplethorpe emerged in the mid-1970s as a successful artist, Smith would achieve simultaneous success as a poet and musician, associated with the punk music genre." ("Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith: Artist and Muse," The Tate Museum, http://www.tate.org.uk)  Mapplethorpe shot the covers for Smith's first four albums, including the iconic cover image for her 1975 album Horses.
David Curtis Glover, better known as Tony "Little Sun" Glover, was an American blues musician and music critic, most notably associated with "Spider" John Koerner and Dave "Snaker" Ray in the early 1960s folk revival. Together, the three released albums under the name Koerner, Ray & Glover. Glover was also the author of diverse "harp" (blues harmonica) songbooks and a co-author, along with Ward Gaines and Scott Dirks, of an award-winning biography of Little Walter, Blues with a Feeling: The Little Walter Story.  His close friendship with Patti Smith dates to 1972 when he helped bring her to the Guthrie Theater for her first Twin Cities performance. She invited the bluesman to join her on stage many times in the ensuing years. In one of their last appearances together in 2009 at Walker Art Center, she formally, humorously apologized to him for being a no-show on his late-night radio show for KDWB-AM in the early 1970s. The reason she stood him up? She saw a big rat on her way to the studio and freaked. "I ran back to my hotel and never said anything to Tony," she said. "He was too cool to say anything."  On his death in 2019 she wrote: "I have known Tony Glover for nearly half a century. As our Little Sun, a fine musician, a dignified and expressive harp player, and a knowledgeable and fair-minded writer. I will always remember the low timber of his voice, his distinct midwestern drawl and his wry sense of humor. Tony was modest yet knew who he was, he knew his own worth. He was a loyal, discreet and benevolent friend. He was a man with an unshakable personal code. He was Little Sun Glover, leaving us silently, his rays quietly reverberating." ("Patti Smith pays homage to Minnesota music legend Tony Glover..." Minnesota Start Tribune, May 31, 2019)