Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain

Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain
by Charles R. Cross

Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain
List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $4.69
You Save: $10.26 (69%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.09 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Charles R. Cross
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2002-08-21
ISBN: 0786884029
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: Hyperion

Book Reviews of Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain

Book Review: Interesting Read
Summary: 5 Stars

Very insightful look into Kurt's life. Good use of sources, and interviewing. I've read a couple books on Cobain but I would recommend this over them all.

Summary of Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain

This is the first in-depth biography of the troubled genius Kurt Cobain. Based on exclusive access to Cobains unpublished diaries, more than 400 interviews, four years of research, and a wealth of documentation, Heavier Than Heaven traces Cobains life from his early days in a double-wide trailer outside of Aberdeen, Washington, to his rise to fame, fortune, and the adulation of a generation.
The art of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain was all about his private life, but written in a code as obscure as T.S. Eliot's. Now Charles Cross has cracked the code in the definitive biography Heavier Than Heaven, an all-access pass to Cobain's heart and mind. It reveals many secrets, thanks to 400-plus interviews, and even quotes Cobain's diaries and suicide notes and reveals an unreleased Nirvana masterpiece. At last we know how he created, how lies helped him die, how his family and love life entwined his art--plus, what the heck "Smells Like Teen Spirit" really means. (It was graffiti by Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna after a double date with Dave Grohl, Cobain, and the "over-bored and self-assured" Tobi Vail, who wore Teen Spirit perfume; Hanna wrote it to taunt the emotionally clingy Cobain for wearing Vail's scent after sex--a violation of the no-strings-attached dating ethos of the Olympia, Washington, "outcast teen" underground. Cobain's stomach-churning passion for Vail erupted in six or so hit tunes like "Aneurysm" and "Drain You.")

Cross uncovers plenty of news, mostly grim and gripping. As a teen, Cobain said he had "suicide genes," and his clan was peculiarly defiant: one of his suicidal relatives stabbed his own belly in front of his family, then ripped apart the wound in the hospital. Cobain was contradictory: a sweet, popular teen athlete and sinister berserker, a kid who rescued injured pigeons and laughingly killed a cat, a talented yet astoundingly morbid visual artist. He grew up to be a millionaire who slept in cars (and stole one), a fiercely loyal man who ruthlessly screwed his oldest, best friends. In fact, his essence was contradictions barely contained. Cross, the coauthor of Nevermind: Nirvana, the definitive book about the making of the classic album, puts numerous Cobain-generated myths to rest. (Cobain never lived under a bridge--that Aberdeen bridge immortalized in the 12th song on Nevermind was a tidal slough, so nobody could sleep under it.) He gives the fullest account yet of what it was like to be, or love, Kurt Cobain. Heavier Than Heaven outshines the also indispensable Come As You Are. It's the deepest book about pop's darkest falling star. --Tim Appelo

Rock Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Books I Love and Like
Cold Mountain (York Notes Advanced) ImageCold Mountain (York Notes Advanced)
by Charles Frazier
Trans-Atlantic Publications, Inc.; Published: 2006-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.90
Price in other shops: $21.95
The Catcher in the Rye ImageThe Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger
Back Bay Books; Published: 2001-01-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.23
Price in other shops: $13.99
The Bell Jar ImageThe Bell Jar
by Sylvia Plath
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2006-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.65
Price in other shops: $16.95
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders ImageHelter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
by Vincent Bugliosi J.D., Curt Gentry, Vincent Bugliosi
W.W. Norton & Co.; Published: 2001-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops: $14.95
The Chronicles of Narnia Movie Tie-in Box Set Prince Caspian (rack) ImageThe Chronicles of Narnia Movie Tie-in Box Set Prince Caspian (rack)
by C. S. Lewis
HarperFestival; Published: 2008-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $23.75
Price in other shops: $45.00
Speak ImageSpeak
by Laurie Halse Anderson
Speak; Published: 2006-04-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.38
Price in other shops: $10.00
A Certain Slant of Light ImageA Certain Slant of Light
by Laura Whitcomb
Graphia; Published: 2005-09-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.74
Price in other shops: $8.99
Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within ImageWriting Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
by Natalie Goldberg
Shambhala; Published: 2005-12-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.70
Price in other shops: $14.00
3 AM Epiphany Image3 AM Epiphany
by Brian Kiteley
Writers Digest Books; Published: 2005-08-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.53
Price in other shops: $15.99
Dracula (Enriched Classics Series) ImageDracula (Enriched Classics Series)
by Bram Stoker
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2003-09-30; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.20
Price in other shops: $5.99
Similar Books and other products
Cobain ImageCobain
by Rolling Stone Press
Little, Brown and Company; Published: 1997-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.58
Price in other shops: $17.99
Nirvana - Live! Tonight! Sold Out! ImageNirvana - Live! Tonight! Sold Out!
UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP DISTRIBUTION; Release date: 2006-11-07; DVD
Best price: $9.28
Price in other shops: $19.98
Scar Tissue ImageScar Tissue
by Anthony Kiedis, Larry Sloman
Hyperion; Published: 2005-10-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.03
Price in other shops: $14.95
Kurt Cobain - About a Son ImageKurt Cobain - About a Son
UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP DISTRIBUTION; Release date: 2008-02-19; DVD
Best price: $11.20
Price in other shops: $19.99
Nirvana: Unplugged In New York ImageNirvana: Unplugged In New York
UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP DISTRIBUTION; Release date: 2007-11-20; DVD
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops: $19.98
Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix ImageRoom Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix
by Charles R. Cross
Hyperion; Published: 2006-08-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.98
Price in other shops: $14.95
Love & Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain ImageLove & Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain
by Max Wallace, Ian Halperin
Atria; Published: 2005-03-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.98
Price in other shops: $14.00
Cobain Unseen ImageCobain Unseen
by Charles R. Cross
Little, Brown and Company; Published: 2008-10-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.73
Price in other shops: $35.00
Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana ImageCome As You Are: The Story of Nirvana
by Michael Azerrad
Main Street Books; Published: 1993-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.80
Price in other shops: $19.95
Journals ImageJournals
by Kurt Cobain
Riverhead Trade; Published: 2003-11-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops: $19.95
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories