French poet Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) has been a tremendous inspiration and influence on avant garde art and literature since at least the 1960s in the USA, and his life and work were especially influential in the literary and artistic circles in which Carroll was involved in New York and California.
Carroll didn’t read Rimbaud until well into his 20s, but Henry Miller’s biographical study of Rimbaud, The Time of the Assassins, was extremely influential in Carroll’s decision to become a rock star. Take a look at just about any interview Carroll gave in the 1980s and I guarantee he’ll almost always talk about the “heart quality” of Rimbaud’s poetry.
In 1978, Carroll gave a series of lectures on Rimbaud that were recorded live at New College of California.
Also, many have noted the parallels between the lives of the two poets; it is revealing that Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays Carroll in The Basketball Diaries, also plays Rimbaud in Total Eclipse. Although Rimbaud gave up writing at about age 17 (20?), while Carroll has carried on, Rimbaud and
Carroll both displayed their poetic genius very early, both lived decadently in their youth, and both display “visionary” qualities. Patti Smith said of Carroll, “He has the same intellectual quality and bravado as Rimbaud . . . Jim Carroll is one of America’s true poets . . .” (back cover, 1st edition Basketball
Diaries). Similarly, Tom Clark wrote an introduction for the first edition of The Basketball Diaries, titled “Rimbaud Rambles on by Way of a Preface to The Diaries,” comparing Carroll to Rimbaud. Last but not least, Carroll’s fourth book of poetry, The Book of Nods, includes a series of surreal
prose-poems entitled “Rimbaud Scenes.” These include “Rimbaud’s Tooth Ache,” “Rimbaud Sees the Dentist,” “Waking in a Painter’s Loft in Paris,” “Rimbaud Running Guns” (which was originally dedicated to Patti Smith), and “Rimbaud Pays Homage to Saint Helena.”
Learn more about Rimbaud on Wikipedia.
Also check out The Drunken Boat, an enormous Rimbaud site almost as old as catholicboy.com, run by a Jim Carroll fan too!