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The late singer-songwriter Elliott Smith is getting the full biography treatment in an upcoming, 560-page book coming out Aug. 25 titled Nobody Broke Your Heart. And even at first glance, the book sets itself apart from nearly all Smith coverage in one significant way: He’s smiling on the cover.
According to publisher Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House, Nobody Broke Your Heart is “the first all-encompassing biography of Smith, offering an intimate portrait of his life and musical legacy with brand-new interviews, lyrics and correspondence from the people closest to him, many speaking for the first time.” It is written by freelance journalist Jamie Fisher.
One source interviewed in the book is Jackpot! Recording Studio owner Larry Crane. Crane, friend and musical collaborator of Smith, did one of the first interviews for the book at Jackpot! and helped Fisher get in touch with other sources and fact-check timelines, he says.
“I knew from the start that Jamie’s book would be very comprehensive and tell an honest story about Elliott,” Crane wrote on Substack.
Nobody Broke Your Heart—the title is a lyric in the 1997 song “Alameda”—tells of Smith’s childhood in Texas, his formative artistic years in Portland and New York, and his later years in Los Angeles. Smith died in 2003 at age 34.
Per the publisher, Nobody Broke Your Heart aims to “shed light on the real Elliott Smith, in all his complexity.”
GO: Jamie Fisher in conversation with Larry Crane at Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323, powells.com/events/jamie-fisher-9780593475669. 7 pm Tuesday, Aug. 25. Free.
GO: Jamie Fisher in conversation with Lydia Kiesling at Literary Arts, 716 SE Grand Ave., 503-227-2583, literary-arts.org/event/nobody-broke-your-heart-jamie-fisher. 6:30 pm Tuesday Sept. 8. Free.
