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In her memoir Bread of Angels, Patti Smith says she learned at 70 that Grant Smith, the man who raised her, was not her biological father. She traces the discovery to a DNA test she and her sister Linda took in 2012, and says her daughter helped her identify her biological father, whom she names as Sidney. This is Smith’s account in her memoir and a 2025 interview; the reporting does not independently verify the family history.
What Patti Smith says she discovered
Smith says the DNA test showed that she and Linda were half-sisters, rather than biological full sisters with the same father. She had initially wondered whether the result might confirm a family suspicion that her mother’s uncle Joe was her father. Instead, she says, the test showed that her father’s side was Ashkenazi.
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Smith identifies her biological father as Sidney. In her account, her daughter—whom Smith placed for adoption when she was 20—helped her trace him. Smith says she found a photograph and recognized him as her father before seeing his face, then later connected with a first cousin. The interview does not provide independent genetic confirmation of Sidney’s identity.
Why the discovery changed the memoir
Smith says she was 70 when she received the DNA result in 2012. She had been writing Bread of Angels, but the discovery made it difficult to continue. “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,” she told PEOPLE.
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She says she stopped working on the memoir for two years as she processed what she had learned. Ultimately, she included the revelation because leaving it out would have made her feel that the book’s truth was compromised.
What Bread of Angels covers
The father story is one strand of a broader life memoir. The publisher describes the book as spanning Smith’s postwar childhood, teenage years and artistic development, her marriage to Fred Sonic Smith, family life, bereavements and return to writing. Smith said it took a decade to write, describing the work as “grappling with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime.”
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When Bread of Angels was published
Bread of Angels is Patti Smith’s memoir, published by Random House. The PEOPLE interview discussing the disclosure appeared on November 4, 2025, the book’s original publication date. Penguin Random House lists a paperback edition dated September 15, 2026, as well as hardcover, ebook and audiobook formats. Edition availability may vary by retailer.
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