The Basketball Diaries

This article is about the book. For the film of the same name, see The Basketball Diaries (film). For the Degrassi: The Next Generation episode, see Basketball Diaries (D:TNG episode).

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
Dewey Decimal	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.