Jim Carroll (born August 1, 1950 in New York City) is an author, poet, autobiographer, and punk musician. Carroll is best known for his 1978 novel The Basketball Diaries, which was made into a movie in 1995 starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Raised in New York City, Carroll attended several Catholic Grammar Schools from 1955 to 1963. In fall 1963, he entered public school, but was soon awarded a scholarship to the elite Trinity High School (a private school). He entered Trinity High School in 1964.

Apart from being interested in writing, Carroll was a passionate basketball player throughout his grade school and middle school career. He entered the "Biddy League" at age 13 and participated in the National High School All Star Game in 1966, hence the title of his most famous book.

More on [ Jim Carroll ]

NPR Topics: Authors

Columnist Krugman Wins Nobel For Economics
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:10:00 -0400
Princeton economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman won the Nobel economics prize on Monday for his analysis of how economies of scale can affect trade patterns and the location of economic activity.
Le Clezio, Portrait Of A Gentle Writer
Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:19:00 -0400
Though born in France, Nobel laureate Jean-Marie Gustav Le Clezio is a nomadic writer, whose work has been defined by his life of travel around the world. For him, storytelling means melting into the background.
Memoir Lives Life As A Widow
Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:00:00 -0400
Anne Roiphe was so dependent on her husband she literally didn't know how to open the front door without him. In her memoir of widowhood, she also remembers how he told her, years before he died, that he felt their marriage had been so strong, she would be able to find happiness again.
A Furious Voice, Forged In The 'Fire' Of Prejudice
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:03:00 -0400
Jamaican-American novelist Michelle Cliff's essays — urgent, stripped of lyrical excess, discomfiting but illuminating — bear witness to a rough life that has shaped a radical, powerful and essential artist.
French Novelist Awarded Nobel Literature Prize
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:08:00 -0400
French novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio has been awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize for literature. Antoine Compagnon, a professor of French Literature at Columbia University, says there are two periods in Le Clezio's work: it was more experimental in the 1960s and '70s, and later it featured traveling and exoticism.
Celebrating Grace Paley's Uniquely Feminine Voice
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:35:00 -0400
Writer Alix Kates Shulman remembers the 1960s as an age where men dominated the literary scene — that is, until Grace Paley's quirky urban voice and modernist short stories began to challenge the notion of what constituted great reading.

Subscribe to Authors RSS feed