(www.holtzbrinckpublishers.com) - Groundbreaking rock musician. Award-winning actress. Perceptive songwriter and author. Mother. Wife of a rock god. Fashionista and trendsetter. Provocateur.
In each and every one of these roles, Courtney Love has demonstrated a wholehearted commitment to her art, and an intense drive and lust for life that have made her a star and a celebrity icon but have also led her into some unwise, uncharted, and even dangerous territory. Simultaneously candid and enigmatic, Love is undeniably compelling, her mordant wit and vivid intelligence matched in intensity only by the extraordinary life she has led, from a bleak early childhood through great fame and terrible heartbreak to the present day. By turns exhilarating and unsettling, this is a story told for the first time in DIRTY BLONDE: The Diaries of Courtney Love, is published by Faber and Faber, an affiliate of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
An eclectic composition of deeply personal artifacts-including letters, childhood records, poetry, journal entries, song lyrics, fanzines, show flyers, other original writings, and never-before-seen photographs-DIRTY BLONDE leads us through the unimaginable highs and the despairing lows of one of the most captivating and creative figures in the world of popular culture. Forming a kind of impromptu memoir, the book shows Love's accomplishments, her mistakes, her history, and her future in a whole new light. Ranging from her upbringing in Oregon through her years of living in Japan, New Zealand, and London, from her career highs with Hole and as a Hollywood leading lady to her personal heartbreak and struggles, DIRTY BLONDE is Love laid bare-a wholly fascinating portrait of a fierce and insightful woman with an unblinking worldview and a determination to express herself no matter the cost.
'Love writes in her introduction: 'I have always said that I would never write a book, and I really haven't.' It's true- 'diaries' is something of a misnomer, as 'scrapbooks' would more accurately describe the collection of old photographs, hand-scrawled song lyrics and other documents that fill these pages. The materials assembled by Stander cover every phase of the rock star's 'wild pirate life,' from a failed childhood audition for The Mickey Mouse Club to an e-mail exchange with Lindsay Lohan about dealing with negative press coverage. (The compilation is so up-to-date it even includes her shocked reactions to the revelations about JT Leroy.) Along the way there are mimeographed flyers for early Hole concerts, a picture of the actual heart-shaped box that inspired Kurt Cobain to write the Nirvana song and photo after photo of Love herself, from candid backstage shots to more polished celebrity portraits. A foreword by Carrie Fisher and an afterword by political activists Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards (Manifesta) each, in their own way, celebrate Love as an unrestrained feminist, but the best way to understand her may be to plunge directly into the raw materials. ' -Publishers Weekly*
'Fractured and full of soul ... A glimpse into the permutations [of] Love's artistic, political and personal selves.' -Hilton Als, Fashion Rocks
