NOVEMBER 10, 2003 – The paperback edition of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s “Journals” bolstered with 14 pages of new material, including an extended narrative about a semi-fictional serial killer, was released with a front cover reproduction of Cobain’s red Mead notebook bearing his hand-written caveat, “if you read, you’ll judge.”
The book offers an unprecedented glimpse of the modern icon’s inner life, from an anatomy of his eclectic influences including John Lennon, the Stooges, the Sex Pistols, PJ Harvey, Public Enemy, David Bowie, to a chronicle of his tumultuous psychoemotional landscape to sketches and drawings that would later grace Nirvana album covers and that, like those of Sylvia Plath, Queen Victoria, and Richard Feynman, have been acclaimed for their artistic acumen.
The book begins with a meandering letter Cobain wrote to Melvins drummer Dale Crover in 1988, discussing the first glimmers of fame, the mediocrity of late-night television, the superficiality of publicity, and the decision to name the band Nirvana.
