Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Celebrated Poet, Dies at 101: 'Our Poet and Hero'
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the famed poet who was placed on trial in the 1950s for publishing Allen Ginsberg's Howl, died Monday evening at age 101.
City Lights Booksellers, the bookstore Ferlinghetti founded in 1953, announced his death in a post on social media on Tuesday. In it, the store called Ferlinghetti their "poet and hero," and included a black and white picture of the bookseller smiling from a window of the building.
In a separate statement published on their website, City Lights reflected on Ferlinghetti's legacy, recalling when he opened the store with a partner "to make diverse and inexpensive quality books widely available."
Ferlinghetti — a World War II Navy veteran — also authored one of the most celebrated poetry books in American history, A Coney Island of the Mind, in 1958. He continued writing poetry up to last year.
According to the Washington Post and New York Times, Ferlinghetti's children said he died of interstitial lung disease.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti standing in front of a store: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the poet, publisher, and political activist, has died at 101 of interstitial lung disease. From his perch at City Lights, his famed San Francisco bookstore, Ferlinghetti published and championed the greatest minds of the Beat Generation, while writing more than thirty acclaimed books in his own right. In 1953, Ferlinghetti founded City Lights, the first all-paperback bookshop in the United States, which he envisioned as a“literary meeting place.” Ferlinghetti’s best hopes for his store came wildly true;“once we opened the door,” he said,“we couldn’t get it closed.” In the sixty-plus years to follow, City Lights became the heart and soul of literary San Francisco, a gathering place for bohemian writers and progressive activists to take part in the West Coast’s literary renaissance. Today, it remains a Mecca for the readers and writers around the globe, who flock to the store as a must-visit San Francisco destination (it was declared a historic landmark in 2001). Through City Lights Publishing, Ferlinghetti published Beat luminaries like Allen Ginsburg, Denise Levertov, and Frank O’Hara, as well as unforgettable work from later schools of writers, including Charles Bukowski, Sam Shepard, and Noam Chomsky. In 1998, Ferlinghetti was named San Francisco’s first poet laureate; in 2005, the National Book Foundation honored“his tireless work on behalf of poets and the entire literary community for over 50 years.” His birthday, March 24, has been declared Lawrence Ferlinghetti Day in San Francisco. Though he was a frequent collaborator and champion of the Beats, he held himself at a remove from the movement, saying,“If anything, I was the last of the bohemians rather than the first of the Beats.” Ferlinghetti’s own poems, which have been translated into twelve languages, are a showcase for both his political conscience and his painterly precision. “Poetry is eternal graffiti written in the heart of everyone,” Ferlinghetti wrote. His poems—both the ones he wrote and the ones he shepherded into the world—live on as artifacts of a singular life in letters. Here, we pay tribute to Ferlinghetti by spotlighting seven of our favorite works bearing his fingerprints.
"For over sixty years, those of us who have worked with him at City Lights have been inspired by his knowledge and love of literature, his courage in defense of the right to freedom of expression, and his vital role as an American cultural ambassador," City Lights said on their website. "His curiosity was unbounded and his enthusiasm was infectious, and we will miss him greatly."
Ferlinghetti — who was born in Yonkers, New York, in 1919 — earned national recognition when he published Ginsberg's Howl in 1956. The groundbreaking poem was one of the defining works of the Beat poets, a group of artists who experimented with hallucinogenic drugs, sexual freedom and Eastern religion, according to Poetry Foundation.
Ferlinghetti told The Guardian in 2006 he did not think of himself as a member of the Beats, though many considered him to be.
"In some ways what I really did was mind the store," Ferlinghetti told the outlet. "When I arrived in San Francisco in 1951 I was wearing a beret. If anything I was the last of the bohemians rather than the first of the Beats."
After publishing Howl, Ferlinghetti was placed on trial on obscenity charges, which ultimately brought more attention to the work of the Beat poets, the Post reported.
City Lights said they plan to continue Ferlinghetti's legacy for years to come.
"We intend to build on Ferlinghetti's vision and honor his memory by sustaining City Lights into the future as a center for open intellectual inquiry and commitment to literary culture and progressive politics," their statement said. "Though we mourn his passing, we celebrate his many contributions and give thanks for all the years we were able to work by his side."
books written or published by Ferlinghetti:
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/b ... ems-books/
"The World Is A Beautiful Place":
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-wor ... ful-place/
The world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don't mind happiness
not always being
so very much fun
if you don't mind a touch of hell
now and then
just when everything is fine
because even in heaven
they don't sing
all the time ...
The world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don't mind some people dying
all the time
or maybe only starving
some of the time
which isn't half bad
if it isn't you
Oh the world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don't much mind
a few dead minds
in the higher places
or a bomb or two
now and then
in your upturned faces
or such other improprieties
as our Name Brand society
is prey to
with its men of distinction
and its men of extinction
and its priests
and other patrolmen
and its various segregations
and congressional investigations
and other constipations
that our fool flesh
is heir to
Yes the world is the best place of all
for a lot of such things as
making the fun scene
and making the love scene
and making the sad scene
and singing low songs and having inspirations
and walking around
looking at everything
and smelling flowers
and goosing statues
and even thinking
and kissing people and
making babies and wearing pants
and waving hats and
dancing
and going swimming in rivers
on picnics
in the middle of the summer
and just generally
'living it up'
Yes
but then right in the middle of it
comes the smiling
mortician
I love it - I LOVE it!!!!!
