One of the most interesting and controversial figures of the 1990s, male or female, Courtney Love has defiantly challenged assumptions about what is considered acceptable behavior for a woman, always blazing her own trail in the process. Wearing torn baby doll dresses, unkempt knotted hair, and a guitar strapped around her shoulders, Love caught the attention of middle America, even becoming the subject of parody on Saturday Night Live —the ultimate litmus test of mainstream recognition. As the lead singer/guitarist for the rock band Hole, as an actress, and as the wife of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, Love has garnered both critical acclaim and vicious personal attacks on her character in becoming among the most-discussed women of the late 1990s.

Love's life has been filled with all the drama of a big budget Hollywood movie. Beginning as an actress who had small parts...