Charles R. Cross, author of what I must begrudge are highly entertaining schlock rock bios of Jimi Hendrix (Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix - 2006) and Curt Cobain (Curt Cobain Heavier than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain - 2002) is exploiting Curt again with a new photo book called Cobain Unseen. Just in time for Halloween, Cross proves that literary aspirations or credibility mean nothing to him - he'd rather be sorting through Curt's fingernails and blood looking for junkie ephemera than ... writing. Cross became a famous writer after the music magazine his parents bought for him, The Rocket, folded and he began a full time quest to exploit the memory of deceased Seattle rock stars. The Rocket somehow missed covering most of the early Seattle "grunge" music scene - Cross was devoting much of his energy to reporting on Bruce Springsteen at the time.

Turns out the very much alive but somewhat zombie-like junkie Courtney Love gave Cross permission to go through a storage load of Curt's worldly possessions looking for material for the book.

Update 10-26-2008
The Seattle Times flogs the Cobain book, and we hear once again that Cobain was plagued by stomach problems. Much the same pains one feels when withdrawing from heroin.

Kurt Cobain like you've never seen him
By Patrick MacDonald - Seattle Times music critic