Raised within New York City, Carroll attended several Catholic Grammar Schools from 1955 to 1963. Inside fall 1963, he entered public school, however was shortly rewarded the scholarship to the elect Trinity High School (the common soldier school). He entered Trinity High School around 1964.

Apart from either existence interested inside writing, Carroll was the passionate basketball player throughout his grade school & middle school career. He entered a "Biddy League" at age Xiii & participated around the National Senior high school Everthing Star Game in 1966, hence the title of his best known book.

As the teen, Carroll was a heroin addict who periodically prostituted himself to afford his habit. A novel A Basketball Diaires concerns his life around Up to date York City's difficult drug culture and his struggle to rid himself of his addiction.

Carroll published his number one book, Organic Trains, at age Seventeen. Many of his verse form stand been published inside such magazines when Paris View & Poetry. Inside 1970, his second collection of verse form, Iv Ups & I Down was published. That equivalent season, Carroll began working for Andy Warhol. At a start, he wwhen writing film dialogue & inventing character list; afterwards, Carroll worked as the co-manager of Warhol's Theater. Carroll's foremost above-ground publication, a collection Residing At A Film was published around 1973.

He formed the Jim Carroll Band, a New Wave/punk rock group, within 1980. Their large commercial profits was a single "People Who Died," from either their debut album, Catholic Son. He has too collaborated sustaining numbers of influential punk & hard rock musicians, including Lou Reed, Blue Öyster Cult, Boz Scaggs and Rancid.

Books
Poetry
Organic Trains (1967) Tetrad Ups & I Down (1970) Dwelling at a Flick (1972) A Book of Nods (1986) Fear of Dreaming (1993) Void naturally: Verse form 1994-1997 (1998) ISBN 0140589090

Diaries/Prose
The Basketball Diaries (1978) Forced Entries (1987)

Books influenced by Jim Carroll
Sole Skin Deep, George Kimball (1968) The Crow, James O'Barr (1981) Wonderland Avenue, Danny Sugerman (1989) The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Sherman Alexie (1993) Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh (1993) The Acid House, Irvine Welsh (1994) ISBN 0393312801 Twelve, Nick McDonell (2002)

Albums
Music by Jim Carroll and the Jim Carroll Band
Catholic Son (1980) Dry Dreams (1982) We Write The Title (1983) Better of The JC Band (1993) Pools of Mercury (1998) Runaway EP (2000)

Spoken word/lecture
Rimbaud Lectures (1978) Naropa Institute (1986) Praying Mantis (1991) The Basketball Diaries (1994) ''Curtis's Charm (1996) Pools of Mercury (1998)

Music done in collaboration
Live at Max's Kansas City, Velvet Underground (1972) Club Ninja, Blue Öyster Cult (1986) Other Roads, Boz Scaggs (1988) Between Thought and Expression, Lou Reed (1992) And Out Come the Wolves, Rancid (1995) Feeling You Up, Truly (1997) Yes I Ram, Jon Tiven Group (1999) Compilations and soundtracks featuring Carroll
Tuff Turf Soundtrack (1985) Back to the Streets: Celebrating the Music of Don Covay (1993) Sedated In The Eighties (1993) New Wave Dance Hits: Just Can't Get Enough, Vol. 6 (1994) The Basketball Diaries Soundtrack (1995) WCBN Naked 2000 (2000)

Covers
Viva Zapata, 7 Year Bitch (1994) Put Your Tongue to the Rail'', various artists (1999)