New Book Reveals the Private Life of Kurt Cobain

To research the rare photos, artwork and journal entries that make up the new book Cobain Unseen (Little, Brown), journalist Charles R. Cross was granted unprecedented access to Kurt Cobain's archives. "It was like a James Bond movie," Cross says of the high-tech Seattle bunker. "But once you got past security, all his possessions were just in boxes." With these artifacts, put into storage following Cobain's 1994 suicide, Cross pieced together a remarkably revealing visual history of Cobain's private life — from his childhood drawings to snapshots (taken by Courtney Love) of Cobain and daughter Frances Bean. "Kurt created work that has such mystery that we still can't capture its essence," Cross says. "It's that intangible thing that made him a star."

• Gallery: Photos, Guitars, Cassettes and More From Cobain Unseen

[From Issue 1064 — October 30, 2008]