The Basketball Diaries
 First edition | |
| Author | Jim Carroll |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Tombouctou Press (Bolinas, CA) |
Publication date | 1978 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 224 (Penguin, 1987) |
| ISBN | 0-14-010018-0 |
| 813/.54 19 | |
| LC Class | PS3553.A7644 Z464 1988 |
The Basketball Diaries is a 1978 memoir written by author and musician Jim Carroll. It is an edited collection of the diaries he kept between the ages of twelve and sixteen. Set in New York City, they detail his daily life, sexual experiences, high school basketball career, Cold War paranoia, the counter-culture movement, and, especially, his addiction to heroin, which began when he was 13. The book is considered a classic piece of adolescent literature.
Carroll later followed up his original memoirs with a sequel of sorts called The Downtown Diaries which follows his relocation to California and his continued addiction to heroin.
The book was made into a film of the same name in 1995 starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jim Carroll and Mark Wahlberg as Mickey.