Lawrence Ferlinghetti
 |
Lawrence Ferlinghetti |
Lawrence Ferlinghetti (born
March 24,
1919) is a
poet who is best known as the co-owner of the
City Lights Bookstore and publishing house, which published early literary works of the Beats, including
Jack Kerouac and
Allen Ginsberg.
Ferlinghetti was born of an Italian-Portuguese-Sephardic immigrant family in
Yonkers, New York. He attended the
Mount Hermon School and earned the rank of
Eagle Scout. He then attended
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and served as an officer in the
United States Navy during
World War II. After the war, he got a master's degree from
Columbia University and a doctorate from the
Sorbonne. While studying in Paris, he met
Kenneth Rexroth, who later persuaded him to go to
San Francisco to experience the growing literary scene there. Between 1951 and 1953 he taught French, wrote literary criticism, and painted.
In 1953, Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin started a bookshop, which they named City Lights after a film magazine Martin had started. Two years later, after Martin left for New York, Ferlinghetti started the publishing house, specialising in poetry. The most famous publication was
Howl, the poem by
Allen Ginsberg, which was initially impounded by the authorities, and subject of a groundbreaking legal case.
Ferlinghetti had a retreat in a fairly wild area of Coastal California,
Big Sur. He always enjoyed nature, and he espoused a liberal spirituality imbued with kindness. These aspects of his character inclined him toward friendships with American practitioners of Buddhism, including Ginsberg and
Gary Snyder. Politically, he has described himself as an
anarchist at heart (a community-oriented, ethical anarchist) who has come to accept that common humanity is not yet ready to live well within anarchism; consequently, he has espoused the sort of
social democracy modelled in
Scandinavian countries.
Ferlinghetti's best-known collection of poetry is
A Coney Island of the Mind, which has been translated into nine languages. In 1998 he was named Poet Laureate of San Francisco. In addition to writing and publishing poetry and running the bookstore, Ferlinghetti continues to paint, and his work has been exhibited in galleries and museums.
Ferlinghetti's poetry often reflects his views about politics and social issues of the time, and he challenges the current thoughts about an artist's role in the world.
The Italian band
Timoria dedicated the song
Ferlinghetti Blues (from the album
El Topo Grand Hotel) to the poet, where Ferlinghetti himself speaks one of his poems.
Recordings of Ferlinghetti reading want ads, as featured on radio station
KPFA in 1957, were recorded by
Henry Jacobs and are featured on the
Meat Beat Manifesto album
At the Center, mistakenly credited to
Kenneth Rexroth.
Pictures of the Gone World (1953)
A Coney Island of the Mind (1958)
The Secret Meaning of Things (1970)
Landscapes of Living and Dying (1980) ISBN 0811207439
Over All the Obscene Boundaries (1986)
Americus: Part I (2004)
Routines (book of short plays)"The Mexican Night (Travel Journal)" (New Directions 1970)
Constantly Risking Absurdity: The Writings of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, by Michael Skau (Whitson, 1989)
Ferlinghetti: A Biography, by Neeli Cherkovski (Doubleday, 1979)
Lawrence Ferlinghetti: Poet-at-Large, by Larry R. Smith (Southern Illinois University Press, 1983)
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Lawrence Ferlinghetti at The Beat Page Biography and Selected Poems.
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Lawrence Ferlinghetti at Literary Kicks*
Lawrence Ferlinghetti at American Poetry*
Blue Neon Alley - Lawrence Ferlinghetti directory*
1988 audio interview by
Don Swaim*
He is a co-signer of the urgent call to Drive Out the Bush Regime
