Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-88) was an American artist. He has been the subject of retrospectives at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Serpentine Gallery, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Foundation Beyeler, among others, and his work is in the permanent collections of major museums around the world. Larry Warsh is an art collector and the editor of Weiwei-isms (Princeton). He is on the board of the nonprofit organization Muse Film and Television, and was a member of the Basquiat Authentication Committee from its establishment in 1984 to its dissolution in 2012.

One of Art World's Top Ten Art Books to Read during Thanksgiving, 2015 "This carefully reproduced facsimile edition of renowned visual artist Basquiat's eight notebooks provides us a glimpse into the mind of a visionary artist. On nearly every page, readers will ponder over why and how Basquiat chose to string together these specific word marks and often bizarre phrases. The notebooks function as a sort of incubator for Basquiat's artistic process as well as a finished product in their own right ... a vital part of Basquiat's legacy and an invaluable window into his ingenious and whimsical mind."--Publishers Weekly "Seeing and reading the pages in the gallery certainly make one want to spend more time with Basquiat's writing, and Princeton University Press's forthcoming facsimile of the notebooks provides this time for closer study... The book offers the intimate reading experience one expects when engaging with an artist's private musing."--Megan N. Liberty, Hyperallergic "The Notebooks by Jean-Michel Basquiat is one of the most interesting books published in recent memory... A book for all seasons--it is a text and an art object at once, adding a new dimension to our knowledge of Basquiat's thought. It brings us under the surface or behind the scenes, whichever metaphor you prefer, showing the artist at his most protean, and pure, stained with the life that rarely slows down long enough to capture it in words."--Stephan Delbos, BODY "This beautiful book ... Expands our understanding of what this artist created in the too-short time he spent at work."--Colin Rafferty, Key Reporter "The Notebooks gathers passages selected from Basquiat's eight notebooks in one fascinating volume that will reveal many lesser-known talents and quirks of SAMO to his ever-growing number of fans worldwide."--Lorena Munoz-Alonso, Artnet News