Patti Smith and Jim Carroll There will always be a poem
I will climb on top of it and come
In and out of time,
Cocking my head to the side slightly,
As I finish shaking, melting then
Into its body, its soft skin
--Jim Carroll, "Poem"
from Void of Course (1998)
Jim Carroll (born James Dennis Carroll, August 1 , 1950 in New York City ) is an author , poet , autobiographer , and punk musician . Carroll is best known for his 1978 autobiographical work The Basketball Diaries , which was made into the 1995 film of the same name with Leonardo DiCaprio as Carroll.
Raised in New York City and of Irish descent, Carroll attended Roman Catholic grammar schools from 1955 to 1963. In fall 1963, he entered public school , but was soon awarded a scholarship to the elite Trinity School (a private school ). He entered Trinity High School in 1964.
Apart from being interested in writing, Carroll was an all-star basketball player throughout his grade school and high school career. He entered the "Biddy League" at age 13 and participated in the National High School All Star Game in 1966. During this time, Carroll was living a double life as heroin addict who prostituted himself to afford his habit. By age 15, Carroll was using heroin, but was also writing poems and attending poetry workshops at St. Mark's Poetry Project.
Carroll attracted the attention of the local literati, and published his first book, Organic Trains, at age 17. Several of his poems have been published in such magazines as Paris Review and Poetry. In 1970, his second collection of poems, 4 Ups and 1 Down was published, and he started working for Andy Warhol . At first, he was writing film dialogue and inventing character names; later on, Carroll worked as the co-manager of Warhol's Theater. Carroll's first above-ground publication, the collection Living At The Movies, was published in 1973.
In 1978, Carroll authored The Basketball Diaries, an autobiographical book concerning his life as a teenager in New York City's hard drug culture . Diaries is an edited collection of the diaries he kept between the ages of twelve and sixteen, detailing his sexual experiences, high school basketball career, and his addiction to heroin, which began when he was 13.
Also in 1978, Carroll formed The Jim Carroll Band, a New Wave / punk rock group, with encouragement from Patti Smith . The band was formerly called Amsterdam, based in the San Francisco Bay Area . The musicians were Steve Linsley (bass), Wayne Woods (drums), Brian Linsley and Terrell Winn (guitars). They released a single "People Who Died", from their 1980 debut album, Catholic Boy ; the album featured contributions from Allen Lanier and Bobby Keys . The song appeared in the 1982 blockbuster film E.T. , as well as 2004's Dawn of the Dead , and was covered by John Cale on his Antártida soundtrack . Later albums were Dry Dreams (1982) and I Write Your Name (1983), both with contributions from Lenny Kaye . Carroll has also collaborated with musicians Lou Reed , Blue Öyster Cult , Boz Scaggs , Ray Manzarek of The Doors, Pearl Jam , and Rancid .
In the mid-1980s, Carroll returned to writing full time and Began to appear regularly on the spoken word circuit. Since 1991, Carroll has performed readings from His unfinished first novel, tentatively titled The Petting Zoo
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