Remembering Jim Carroll

A look back at the life of the 'Basketball Diaries' author and iconic punk rocker

Jim Carroll, "the poet and punk rocker in the outlaw tradition of Rimbaud and Burroughs," said William Grimes in The New York Times, died from a heart attack on Friday at the age of 60. He was perhaps best known for his 1978 book The Basketball Diaries, which chronicled his excessive drug use as a teenage basketball star at an elite private school in Manhattan, and was turned into a movie (watch the trailer) in 1995 starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Carroll.

But it was Carroll's "raw and fiery poetry" in collections such as Organic Trains and 4 Ups and 1 Down, said the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, that "quickly earned him a reputation as a new Bob Dylan." Carroll was "lauded" by Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and "spent time with and around some of the most acclaimed poets" of his generation. He also worked at Andy Warhol's Factory, collaborated with Lou Reed, and lived for a period of time with Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith.

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