James Dennis Carroll (August 1, 1949 – September 11, 2009) was an American author, poet, autobiographer, and

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

musician. Carroll was best known for his 1978 autobiographical work '' The Basketball Diaries'', which inspired a 1995 film of the same title that starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Carroll, and his 1980 song "People Who Died" with the Jim Carroll Band.

Early life

Carroll was born to a working-class family of Irish descent, and grew up in New York City's

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

. When he was about 11 (in the sixth grade) his family moved north to Inwood in Upper Manhattan. He was taught by the LaSalle Christian Brothers. In fall 1963, he entered Rice High School in Harlem, but was soon awarded a scholarship to the elite Trinity School. He attended Trinity from 1964 to 1968. Carroll was a basketball star in high school, but also developed an addiction to heroin. He financed his drug habit by engaging in prostitution in the vicinity of 53rd Street and Third Avenue in Manhattan. Carroll briefly attended

Wagner College Wagner College is a private liberal arts college in Staten Island, New York City. Founded in 1883 and with an enrollment of approximately 2,200 students, Wagner is known for its academic program, The Wagner Plan for the Practical Liberal Arts. It ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. He dated

Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album '' Horses''. Called the "punk poe ...

Career

Carroll identified

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogni ...

Frank O'Hara Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure i ...

John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...

James Schuyler James Marcus Schuyler (November 9, 1923 – April 12, 1991) was an American poet. His awards include the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 1980 collection ''The Morning of the Poem''. He was a central figure in the New York School and is of ...

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

, and

William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...

as influences on his artistic career.

Writing

While still in high school, Carroll published his first collection of poems, ''Organic Trains.'' Already attracting the attention of the local literati, his work began appearing in the Poetry Project's magazine ''The World'' in 1967. Soon his work was being published in elite literary magazines like ''

Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

'' in 1968, and ''

Poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

'' the following year. In 1970, his second collection of poems, ''4 Ups and 1 Down'' was published, and he started working for

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

. 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 publication by a mainstream publisher (Grossman Publishers), the poetry collection ''Living at the Movies'', was published in 1973. In 1978, Carroll published ''The Basketball Diaries,'' an autobiographical book concerning his life as a teenager in New York City's hard drug

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

. ''Diaries'' is an edited collection of the diaries he kept during his high school years; it details his sexual experiences, his high school basketball career, and his addiction to heroin. In 1987, Carroll wrote a second memoir, ''Forced Entries: The Downtown Diaries 1971–1973,'' continuing his autobiography into his early adulthood in the New York City music and art scene as well as his struggle to kick his drug habit. After working as a musician, Carroll returned to writing full-time in the mid-1980s and began to appear regularly on the spoken-word circuit. Starting in 1991, Carroll performed readings from his then-in-progress first novel, ''The Petting Zoo''. In 1995, Canadian filmmaker

John L'Ecuyer John L'Ecuyer (born November 15, 1964) is a Canadian film and television director. Biography John L'Ecuyer's first feature, '' Curtis's Charm'' (1995), was an adaptation of a Jim Carroll story. The film received a Special Jury Citation as Best Can ...

adapted "Curtis's Charm", a short story from Carroll's 1993 book ''Fear of Dreaming'', into the film '' Curtis's Charm''.

Music

In 1978, after he moved to California to get a fresh start since overcoming his heroin addiction, Carroll formed Amsterdam, a new wave/ punk rock group, with encouragement from

, with whom he once shared an apartment in New York City, along with

Robert Mapplethorpe Robert Michael Mapplethorpe (; November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photographs. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female nudes, self-p ...

. The musicians were Steve Linsley (bass), Wayne Woods (drums - he had previously been in hard rock band, Estus), Brian Linsley and Terrell Winn (guitars). He performed a spoken word piece with the Patti Smith Group in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

when the support band dropped out at the last moment. They changed their name to The Jim Carroll Band and were able to secure a recording contract with Atlantic Records with the support of the Rolling Stones’

Keith Richards Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), often referred to during the 1960s and 1970s as "Keith Richard", is an English musician and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-princi ...

. They released a single, "People Who Died", taken from their 1980 debut album '' Catholic Boy'', originally intended to be released on

Rolling Stones Records Rolling Stones Records was the record label formed by the Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Mick Taylor, Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman in 1970, after their recording contract with Decca Records expired. The label was initia ...

. The single would make it to No. 103 on the

Bubbling Under Hot 100 Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (also known as Bubbling Under the Hot 100) is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The chart lists the top songs that have not yet charted on the main ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Chart ...

chart. The album featured contributions from

Allen Lanier Allen Glover Lanier (; June 25, 1946 – August 14, 2013) was an American musician who played keyboards and rhythm guitar. He was an original member of Blue Öyster Cult. Lanier wrote several songs for Blue Öyster Cult albums, including "T ...

and

Bobby Keys Robert Henry Keys (December 18, 1943 – December 2, 2014) was an American saxophonist who performed with other musicians as a member of several horn sections of the 1970s. He appears on albums by the Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Harry Ni ...

. The first known use of "People Who Died" in film was in

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spie ...

's 1982 film '' E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' opening the first scene with dialogue while the boys play ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

''. It was also used in the 1985

Kim Richards Kim Erica Richards (born September 19, 1964) is an American actress, socialite, and television personality. She began her career as a child actress, and rose to prominence from her roles in '' Nanny and the Professor'', '' Escape to Witch Mount ...

film ''

Tuff Turf ''Tuff Turf'' is a 1985 American drama film directed by Fritz Kiersch and starring James Spader and Kim Richards. The film was released in the United States on January 11, 1985. Plot Morgan Hiller (Spader) is an intelligent but bullied teenager ...

'' starring

James Spader James Todd Spader (born February 7, 1960) is an American actor. He has portrayed eccentric characters in films such as the drama ''Sex, Lies, and Videotape'' (1989) for which he won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, the action scien ...

and

Robert Downey Jr. Robert John Downey Jr. (born April 4, 1965) is an American actor and producer. His career has been characterized by critical and popular success in his youth, followed by a period of substance abuse and legal troubles, before a resurgence of ...

, which also featured a cameo appearance by the band. It was also used in 2004's '' Dawn of the Dead'', and in the 2015 episode "eps1.9_zer0-day.avi" in Season 1 of ''

Mr. Robot ''Mr. Robot'' is an American drama thriller television series created by Sam Esmail for USA Network. It stars Rami Malek as Elliot Alderson, a cybersecurity engineer and hacker with social anxiety disorder, clinical depression and dissociati ...

''. It was featured in the 1995 film ''The Basketball Diaries'' (based on Carroll's autobiography), and was covered by

John Cale John Davies Cale (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh musician, composer, singer, songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his six-decade career, Cale has worked in various styl ...

on his ''

Antártida Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

'' soundtrack. The song also was covered by the super group Hollywood Vampires on their album ''

Rise Rise or RISE may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * '' Rise: The Vieneo Province'', an internet-based virtual world * Rise FM, a fictional radio station in the video game ''Grand Theft Auto 3'' * Rise Kujikawa, a vide ...

'' with vocals by Johnny Depp. The song's title was based on a poem by

Ted Berrigan Ted Berrigan (November 15, 1934 – July 4, 1983) was an American poet. Early life Berrigan was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 15, 1934. After high school, he spent a year at Providence College before joining the U.S. Army. After ...

. Later albums were ''Dry Dreams'' (1982) and ''I Write Your Name'' (1983), both with contributions from

Lenny Kaye Lenny Kaye (''né'' Kusikoff; born December 27, 1946) is an American guitarist, composer, and writer who is best known as a member of the Patti Smith Group. Early life Kaye was born to Jewish parents in the Washington Heights area of upper Ma ...

and Paul Sanchez (guitar). Carroll also collaborated with musicians

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...

Blue Öyster Cult Blue Öyster Cult ( ; sometimes abbreviated BÖC or BOC) is an American Rock music, rock band formed on Long Island in Stony Brook, New York, in 1967, and best known for the singles "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", "Burnin' for You", and "Godzilla ( ...

Boz Scaggs William Royce "Boz" Scaggs (born June 8, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. An early bandmate of Steve Miller in The Ardells and the Steve Miller Band, he began his solo career in 1969, though he lacked a major hit until h ...

Ray Manzarek Raymond Daniel Manzarek Jr. (né Manczarek; February 12, 1939 – May 20, 2013) was an American keyboardist. He is best known as a member of the Doors, co-founding the band with singer and lyricist Jim Morrison in 1965. Manzarek was induct ...

The Doors The Doors were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential ro ...

Pearl Jam Pearl Jam is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. The band's lineup consists of founding members Jeff Ament (bass guitar), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar), Mike McCready (lead guitar), and Eddie Vedder (lead vocals, guita ...

Electric Light Orchestra The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970 by songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterised by a fusion of pop, classical a ...

and Rancid. "People Who Died" was most recently used in the 2021 film '' The Suicide Squad'', directed by

James Gunn James Francis Gunn Jr. (born August 5, 1966) is an American filmmaker and executive. He began his career as a screenwriter in the mid-1990s, starting at Troma Entertainment with ''Tromeo and Juliet'' (1997). He then began working as a director ...

, and the end credits of the Season 4 ''

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel ''The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel'' is an American period comedy-drama television series, created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, that premiered on March 17, 2017, on Amazon Prime Video. Set in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it stars Rachel Brosnahan as ...

'' episode "Everything Is Bellmore", paying tribute to late cast member

Brian Tarantina Brian Tarantina (March 27, 1959 – November 2, 2019) was an American stage, screen, and television character actor born in New York City. He was known for his roles on such shows as ''One Life to Live'', ''The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel'', and ''Gil ...

Personal life

Carroll became sober in the 1970s. After moving to California, he met Rosemary Klemfuss; the couple married in 1978. The marriage ended in divorce, but the two remained friends.

Death

Carroll died of a heart attack at his Manhattan home on September 11, 2009, at the age of 60. At the time of his death, he was in ill health due to

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

and

hepatitis C Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection people often have mild or no symptoms. Occasionally a fever, dark urine, a ...

. He was working at his desk when he died. His funeral mass was held at Our Lady of Pompeii Catholic Church on Carmine Street in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

Books

Poetry

*''Organic Trains'' (1967) *''4 Ups and 1 Down'' (Angel Hair Press; 1970) *''Living at the Movies'' (Penguin Books; September 24, 1973) *''The Book of Nods'' (Puffin; April 1, 1986) *''Fear of Dreaming: The Selected Poems'' (Penguin Books; November 1, 1993) *''Void of Course: Poems 1994–1997'' (Penguin Books; October 1, 1998) *''8 Fragments for Kurt Cobain'' (1994)

Prose

*'' The Basketball Diaries'' (memoir) (1978) *'' Forced Entries: The Downtown Diaries 1971–1973'' (memoir) (1987) *''The Petting Zoo'' (novel) (2010; published posthumously)

Discography

Albums

*'' Catholic Boy'' (1980) *''Live Dreams'' (1981) *''Dry Dreams'' (1982) *''I Write Your Name'' (1983) *''A World Without Gravity: Best of The Jim Carroll Band'' (1993) *'' Pools of Mercury'' (1998) (2012 Digital Download) *'' Runaway'' EP (2000)

Spoken word

*''Praying Mantis'' (1991) (2008 Digipak reissue) *'' The Basketball Diaries'' (1994) *''Pools of Mercury'' (1998)

Collaborations

*''

Live at Max's Kansas City ''Live at Max's Kansas City'' is a live album by the Velvet Underground recorded at the famous nightclub and restaurant at 213 Park Avenue South in New York City. It was originally released on May 30, 1972, by Cotillion, a subsidiary label of At ...

'',

The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. The original line-up consisted of singer/guitarist Lou Reed, multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Angus MacLise. MacLise w ...

(1972) *''

Club Ninja ''Club Ninja'' is the tenth studio album by American hard rock band Blue Öyster Cult, released on December 10, 1985 in the United Kingdom and on February 11, 1986 in the United States. The album was intended as a comeback for the band, whose pr ...

'',

(1985) *''

Mistrial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, w ...

'',

(1986) *''

Other Roads ''Other Roads'' is the tenth studio album by Boz Scaggs released in 1988. After an eight-year hiatus from recording, Scaggs returned in 1988 with this album, a record aimed primarily at the adult contemporary market. The album reached #47 on t ...

'',

(1988) *'' Between Thought and Expression: The Lou Reed Anthology'',

(1992) *'' ...And Out Come the Wolves'', Rancid (1995) *'' Catholic Boy'',

(1995) *'' Feeling You Up'', Truly (1997) *''Yes I Ram'', Jon Tiven Group (1999)

Compilations and soundtracks

*''The Dial-a-Poem Poets'' (1972) *''Disconnected'' (1974) *''The Nova Convention'' (1979), with a once-only

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...

performance *''One World Poetry'' (1981) *''Better an Old Demon than a New God'' (1984) *Lou Reed at the Capitol Theatre (1984) *''

soundtrack'' (1985) *''Release #8 - 1993'' (1993) *''Back to the Streets: Celebrating the Music of Don Covay'' (1993) *''Sedated in the Eighties'' (1993) *'' New Wave Dance Hits: Just Can't Get Enough, Vol. 6'' (1994) *''

The Basketball Diaries (soundtrack) ''The Basketball Diaries'' is a 1995 American biographical film, biographical crime film, crime drama film directed by Scott Kalvert and based on The Basketball Diaries (book), an autobiographical novel by the same name written by Jim Carroll. ...

'' (1995) *''Put Your Tongue to the Rail: The Philly Comp for Catholic Children (Songs of the Jim Carroll Band)'' (1999) *'' WBCN Naked 2000'' (1999) *'' Dawn of the Dead'' (2004) *'' The Darwin Awards'' (2005)

References

External links

CatholicBoy.comAP Obituary
in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carroll, Jim 1949 births 2009 deaths 20th-century American male singers 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American poets 20th-century American singers 20th-century diarists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American poets American diarists American male non-fiction writers American male novelists American male poets American people of Irish descent American punk rock singers Atco Records artists Columbia University alumni Giant Records (Warner) artists Novelists from New York (state) People from Inwood, Manhattan People from the Lower East Side Punk people Punk poets Wagner College alumni Writers from Manhattan