The Basketball Diaries: Editions

The Tombouctou first edition (1978), issued only in paperback, features a black and white photograph of Carroll by Rosemary Klemfuss/Carroll; this edition also features illustrations from clay sculptures by Marc Blane, a four-page introduction by Tom Clark entitled “Rimbaud Rambles On: By Way of a Preface to The Diaries,” and an author’s note by Carroll.

The Bantam edition (1981), issued only in paperback, has a different photograph of Carroll and a quotation from Frank Zappa.

The 1987 Penguin edition, paperback only, has the same cover photograph as the Tombouctou edition, but it is colorized.

The 1987 Faber & Faber edition was issued only in the UK; it reprints The Basketball Diaries and prose works from The Book of Nods in one paperback volume. The cover photo is a cropped closeup of the cover photo on the first editions.

The 1995 Penguin edition (paperback) is a film tie-in, featuring a photograph of Leonardo DiCaprio. This edition was a New York Times best-seller (download PDF).

The 1998 Penguin edition (paperback) is the current edition as of 2005. The cover features a photograph from the same sitting as the Bantam edition, tinted blue.

The 1994 Audio Literature edition is an “almost” unabridged audio version of The Basketball Diaries read by Jim Carroll. By almost, I mean that the excluded pieces are available elsewhere.