Journals by Kurt Cobain (2002, Hardcover)

Synopsis
Nirvana front man and grunge rock saint Kurt Cobain left a considerable legacy of music and a considerable amount of anguish behind him when he committed suicide in 1994. JOURNALS, a collection of letters, rough drafts, diary entries, cartoons, and simple unedited thoughts, offers revealing glimpses of the inner workings of a mind that always seemed to be working overtime, and which Cobain often tried to switch off with doses of heroin. The handwritten and typed entries take us from Nirvana's early days, when the band had just been signed by Sub Pop and Cobain was recounting its discovery by Seattle's hip kids to the Melvins' Dale Crover, to a few years later, and the depths of Cobain's despair at the shortcomings of fame. In between there are some imaginative and some unworkable ideas for videos, letters to friends, and an amusing and poignant prose sketch of Cobain spending an evening with Krist (then Chris) Novoselic ripping on, and ultimately destroying, the unacceptably lame elements of Novoselic's record collection. By turns smart and smart-assed, intensely creative, and hopelessly despairing, the crude honesty of these scraps from Cobain's inner life reveals both their iconic writer's fierce intellect and his deep insecurity.

Key Details
Author:	Kurt Cobain
Language:	English
Publisher:	Riverhead Books
Format:	Hardcover
ISBN-10:	1573222321
ISBN-13:	9781573222327

Size
Length:	304 pages
Thickness:	1 in
Weight:	38.4 oz

Publisher's Note
From the late 1980s until his death in 1994, Kurt Cobain kept a record of his innermost thoughts about his life and career in a series of dime-store notebooks. Brimming with lyrics, drawings, writings, lists of favorite songs, production notes, and letters to fellow musicians, friends, and family members, more than twenty of these notebooks survived the tumultuous events of Cobain's life. Safeguarded since his death, they have not been seen by the public until now. The most remarkable excerpts from these notebooks have been gathered together in KURT COBAIN'S JOURNALS. Presented in full-color facsimile format, they reveal Cobain's uncensored views about fame, Nirvana, his public image, and his place in music history. They include new disclosures about his health problems and drug use, and blunt assessments of the artists he respected and of those in the media he despised. Cobain shares his deepest and most private thoughts about his sex life and his politics, his unabashed love for his wife and daughter, his bitter critiques of the music business and right-wing politics, and his doubts about his own creativity and ambition. Together, these journal entries create an extraordinary portrayal of the personal and professional evolution of the most compelling musician of his time, and of a distinctive era in American popular culture.

Kurt Cobain filled dozens of notebooks with lyrics, drawings, and writings about his plans for Nirvana and his thoughts about fame, the state of music, and the people who bought and sold him and his music. Over twenty of these notebooks survived his many moves and travels and have been locked in a safe since his death. His journals reveal an artist who loved records, who knew the history of rock, and who was determined to define his place in that history.