[Item #5385] The Basketball Diaries 1963-1966. Jim Carroll.
The Basketball Diaries 1963-1966
The Basketball Diaries 1963-1966
The Basketball Diaries 1963-1966

The Basketball Diaries 1963-1966

Bolinas, CA: Tombouctou, 1978. First Edition. Softcover. "With an eye for detail & ear for narrative, Jim Carroll brings us through a world of youthful crime and streetplay, where drugs are as much a commonplace as sasparilla was when I was a boy. He must be a born writer." (William S. Burroughs, quoted on back cover) The notorious cult-classic autobiography by Jim Carroll (1949-2009), the legendary Beat-&-Beyond American author, poet & musician. Consisting of diaristic passages spanning Carroll's life from appx. age 14-17, this memoir depicts the activities, relationships & depredations of the young author on the streets, artists' lofts & venues of 1960s New York City during that fabled period when the New York School of poetry & the Mimeograph Revolution flourished; & the Beat Generation was morphing into the hippie counterculture. This passage that begins the "Summer 66" section near the end of the book exemplifies Carroll's gritty & evocative style, almost a cross between WSB & Hunter S. Thompson: "In ten minutes it will make four days that I've been nodding on this ratty mattress up here in Headquarters. Haven't eaten except for three carrots and two Nestle's fruit and nut bars and both my forearms sore as shit with all the little specks of caked blood covering them. My two sets of gimmicks right along side me in the slightly bloody water in the plastic cup on the crusty linoleum, probably used by every case of hepatitis in upper Manhattan by now. Totally zonked, and all the dope scraped or sniffed clean from the tiny cellophane bags. Four days of temporary death gone by, no more bread, with its hundreds of nods and casual theories, soaky nostalgia (I could have got that for free walking along Fifth Avenue at noon), at any rate, a thousand goofs, some still hazy in my noodle." (pg. 149) With an introduction by Tom Clark (1940-2018), the great exemplar of our "Prolific & Underappreciated" literary category (see our many Clark collectibles); laudatory blurbs by WSB (quoted above), Patti Smith & even Jack Kerouac (who was impressed with Carroll's earliest published writings); & front cover of a brooding Carroll by Rosemary Klemfuss, his wife at the time & life-long friend. This copy is from the very first edition, trade-format softcover original, first & only printing in this version by this publisher though not stated as such on copyright page. The Basketball Diaries quickly became a cult hit, was & is still being re-published by various imprints, & was made into the acclaimed film of the same title starring Leonardo di Caprio as the Carroll figure in 1995. As to whether the narrator is "reliable" here, we quote from author's note that these writings "...are as much fiction as biography. They were as much made up as they were lived out. It all Happened. None of it happened. It was me. Now it's you." Below this, Carroll provides a quote attributed to the quasi-mystical medieval Persian war leader Hassan (-i) Sabbah which is also a key favorite of WSB: "Nothing is true; Everything is permitted." (pg. xi) See our other Carroll-related rarities. A primary Beat-&-Beyond collectible in its very rarest, ever-scarcer form. In relatively near-fine condition with mild rubbing, scratching & a hint of browning to front, back covers & spine; mild wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; light-to-pronounced vertical creases across spine (with lettering quite legible & intact); mild rubbing to edges of text block. Interior fine with very light rubbing, fading & browning to blank inner covers & endpapers; hand-inscription & signature of previous owner-gifter near upper right corner of blank second front endpaper; tiny bumps at corners of a few page leaves; side edges of two leaves (pgs. 59-62) slightly irregular-untrimmed, probably slightly flawed as issued. Near Fine. [Item #5385]

Price: $400.00