March 18

Poet, rock musician, and diarist Jim Carroll was born and grew up in New York City. Talented at both basketball and writing, he attended Trinity High School in Manhattan on a scholarship and was an All-City basketball star, a period in his life vividly described in Basketball Diaries, which was made into a major motion picture starring Leonardo Di Caprio. His first collection of poetry, Living at the Movies, was published when he was twenty-two. His other books include The Book of Nods (1986), Forced Entries (1987),and Fear of Dreaming: The Selected Poems of Jim Carroll (1993). Leader of the Jim Carroll band, he has recorded three albums on Atlantic Records: Catholic Boy, Dry Dreams, and I Write Your Name. A World Without Gravity: The Best of the Jim Carroll Band was released by Rhino Records in 1993.