A signed and inscribed first edition of Patti Smith’s remembrance of her friend Robert Mapplethorpe The Coral Sea.

Smith signed this on the title page to her friend and legendary music business executive Howie Klein, writing ‘December 1996/ To Howie / The Best Always / Patti Smith’.

In Mint Condition.  With Recordmecca’s written lifetime guarantee of authenticity.

This is from the estate of the legendary music executive and President of Reprise Records.

As Billboard Magazine noted, Howie Klein was an ‘influential and forward-thinking record executive and political activist whose artist-first philosophy helped bring alternative music into the mainstream…Widely respected for championing creative freedom and resisting censorship, Klein left his mark on the music business through influential roles at Sire Records and Reprise Records, as well as earlier work in radio and indie labels.’

In 1987 Howie joined Seymour Stein’s Sire Records, a division of Warner Bros. Records, as VP/General Manager, working closely with artists including Lou Reed, the Ramones, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode and Morrissey. In 1997 he was promoted to President of Warner’s Reprise label, overseeing a roster that included Green Day, Alanis Morissette, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Wilco, Fleetwood Mac, Paul Westerberg, Enya and many more.

In 2001, he left Reprise after the Time Warner-AOL merger, directing his attention to progressive political causes. Klein passed away in December 2025