Journals (Cobain)

Journals

Author	Kurt Cobain
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Autobiography
Publisher	Riverhead Books
Publication date	2002 Hardcover, 2003 Paperback
Media type	Print (Paperback and Hardcover)
Pages	280 (hardcover) 294 (paperback)
ISBN	978-1-57322-232-7
OCLC	50333745
Dewey Decimal	782.42166/092 B 21
LC Class	ML420.C59 A3 2002

Journals is a collection of writings and drawings by Kurt Cobain, the late former lead singer and guitarist of Nirvana. Though the content is undated, it is arranged in approximately chronological order. It was published in hardcover by Riverhead Books in November 2002, and in paperback by Riverhead Books in November 2003. Journals opened at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list (non-fiction). It contains scrawled notes, drafted letters, shopping lists, and drawings by Cobain.

Reception

Seattle Weekly News said this: "The journals are like an exploded diagram of a tormented soul, a maelstrom of self-pity, intolerant pride, morbid introspection, ingenious self-delusion, merciless self-knowledge, showbiz revulsion, starstruck effusion, Faustian ambition, otherworldly detachment, and an iron will helpless to help itself. Packed into 280 pages are shocking confessions, sweetly eloquent letters to brilliant friends, hard-nosed band plans, fulminating political screeds, obscene cartoons, haunting video treatments, and lyrical poetry of tremulous Romantic sensitivity, Bukowskian crudity, dadaist flippancy, and modernist opacity." Furthermore, its release reportedly polarized fans, some of whom felt it constituted an invasion of Cobain's privacy, and others of whom saw it as a unique opportunity to better understand him.^[1]

References