Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Born	Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (1919-03-24) 24 March 1919 Yonkers, New York, U.S.
Died	22 February 2021(2021-02-22) (aged 101)
Occupation(s)	Poet, painter, social activist, bookseller, publisher
Years active	1950s–2021
Known for	Co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers; poetry collection "A Coney Island of the Mind"
Notable work	A Coney Island of the Mind

Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was a distinguished American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. His literary output spanned poetry, translations, fiction, theater, art criticism, and film narration. Ferlinghetti is most renowned for his second poetry collection, A Coney Island of the Mind (1958), which has been translated into nine languages and sold more than one million copies. Upon reaching the age of 100 in March 2019, the city of San Francisco honored him by declaring March 24 as "Lawrence Ferlinghetti Day".

Early life

Born on March 24, 1919, in Yonkers, New York, Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti experienced significant family challenges early on. His father, Carlo Ferlinghetti, originally from Brescia, passed away from a heart attack shortly before Lawrence’s birth; meanwhile, his mother Clemence Albertine (née Mendes-Monsanto), who was of Portuguese Sephardic Jewish heritage, was institutionalized soon after. Carlo had shortened the family surname to Ferling upon immigrating to the United States—a name Lawrence initially used in his early works until he discovered his father's original surname through official records; by 1955 he had restored it to Ferlinghetti. Raised first by an aunt and subsequently by foster parents, Ferlinghetti completed his secondary education at Mount Hermon School for Boys (now Northfield Mount Hermon) in 1937. He then pursued higher education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism in 1941. During this period, he contributed sports articles to The Daily Tar Heel and published short stories in Carolina Magazine, a publication once associated with Thomas Wolfe.

Ferlinghetti served as a captain of a submarine chaser during the Normandy invasion in World War II as part of the U.S. Navy. Following his military service, he attained a Master of Arts degree in English literature from Columbia University in 1947 with a thesis focusing on John Ruskin and painter J. M. W. Turner. He advanced his studies at the University of Paris, where he completed a Doctorate in comparative literature with a dissertation titled "The City as Symbol in Modern Poetry: In Search of a Metropolitan Tradition".

Personal life

In 1946, Ferlinghetti encountered his future wife, Selden Kirby-Smith—granddaughter of Edmund Kirby-Smith—while traveling by ship to France. Both were bound for Paris to pursue studies at the Sorbonne. Kirby-Smith was commonly known by the nickname Kirby. Their union resulted in two children before eventually ending in divorce.

City Lights

After relocating to San Francisco in 1951, Ferlinghetti co-founded City Lights in the North Beach neighborhood in 1953 alongside Peter D. Martin, then a student at San Francisco State University. Each contributed $500 to start the venture. Two years later, in 1955, Ferlinghetti acquired Martin's stake and launched a publishing imprint under the same name. The inaugural series released was the Pocket Poets Series. Notably, Ferlinghetti faced legal action for issuing Allen Ginsberg's Howl, culminating in a landmark 1957 First Amendment trial where he was charged with distributing obscene material but was ultimately acquitted.

Poetry

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Lawrence Ferlinghetti in Speaking Portraits

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Ferlinghetti's typewriter, preserved at the National Museum of American History

Ferlinghetti played a significant role in publishing many poets associated with the Beat movement and is sometimes classified as a Beat poet himself. However, he personally rejected this label, stating in the 2013 documentary Ferlinghetti: Rebirth of Wonder: "Don't call me a Beat. I never was a Beat poet."

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Lawrence Ferlinghetti at Caffe Trieste in 2012

Early in his career, Ferlinghetti’s poetry bore strong influences from T. S. Eliot. He confessed to poet and critic Jack Foley that "Everything I wrote sounded just like him." Even so, poems inspired by Eliot—such as "Constantly Risking Absurdity"—demonstrate Ferlinghetti’s populist sensibility by likening the poet to both a circus trapeze artist and a "little charleychaplin man."

Critics have observed that Ferlinghetti’s poetic work frequently exhibits vivid visual qualities, consistent with his background as a painter. Jack Foley remarked that his poems "tell little stories, make 'pictures'." In his poetry, Ferlinghetti uses language to paint colorful depictions of everyday American life, exemplified by lines from "In Golden Gate Park that Day": "In Golden Gate Park that day/ a man and his wife were coming along/ ... He was wearing green suspenders ... while his wife was carrying a bunch of grapes."

The opening poem of A Coney Island of the Mind, titled "In Goya's Greatest Scenes, We Seem To See," employs words to evoke the "suffering humanity" captured by Goya’s brushstrokes. The poem concludes by suggesting that contemporary suffering might be depicted as ordinary Americans overwhelmed by materialism: "on a freeway fifty lanes wide/ a concrete continent/ spaced with bland billboards/ illustrating imbecile illusions of happiness."

Ferlinghetti embraced an explicitly populist ethos throughout his poetry, advocating that art should be accessible to everyone rather than confined to an elite intellectual minority. American author and editor Larry Smith described him as a poet "of the people engaged conscientiously in the creation of new poetic and cultural forms." This democratic view of art—as a broad social and cultural force rather than an exclusive academic pursuit—is evident in Poem 9 from Pictures of the Gone World, where the speaker asserts: Template:"'Truth is not the secret of a few' / yet / you would maybe think so / the way some / librarians / and cultural ambassadors and / especially museum directors / act" (1–8). In addition to this egalitarian perspective, Ferlinghetti’s work incorporates everyday American speech and experiments with line breaks—a technique inherited from William Carlos Williams, as noted by Crale Hopkins.

Reflecting his wide-ranging artistic interests, Ferlinghetti’s poetry often intersects with other creative disciplines such as jazz music and painting. Scholar William Lawlor highlights how much of Ferlinghetti’s free verse seeks to emulate the spontaneity and inventive spirit characteristic of modern jazz; indeed, he frequently included jazz performances during his public poetry readings.

Political involvement

Shortly after making San Francisco his home in 1951, Ferlinghetti encountered the poet Kenneth Rexroth, whose ideas on philosophical anarchism significantly shaped his political outlook. He identified himself as a philosophical anarchist, frequently engaging with fellow anarchists in North Beach and distributing Italian anarchist publications through the City Lights Bookstore. Although Ferlinghetti described himself as "an anarchist at heart," he acknowledged that true anarchism could only be realistically practiced if society were inhabited by "saints." Consequently, he supported achievable goals akin to the Scandinavian model of democratic socialism.

During the early 1960s, Ferlinghetti expressed his backing for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. On January 14, 1967, he took part as a keynote speaker at the "Human Be-In" event hosted by the Gathering of the tribes, which attracted tens of thousands and catalyzed what became known as San Francisco's "Summer of Love." In 1968, Ferlinghetti committed to the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" by pledging to withhold his Federal income tax payments in opposition to the Vietnam War.

In his 1998 inaugural speech as San Francisco’s Poet Laureate, Ferlinghetti encouraged residents to support removing a segment of the earthquake-damaged Central Freeway and replacing it with a boulevard: {{quote|"What undermines a city’s poetry? Automobiles do—they destroy more than just poetry. Across America and Europe alike, urban areas are being ravaged by car culture. Yet cities are gradually realizing they need not surrender to this fate. Consider our stunning new Embarcadero! Here in San Francisco, we now have another opportunity to prevent Autogeddon from taking hold. Just a few blocks away stands the unsightly Central Freeway, which can be permanently removed if you vote for Proposition E this November."} }

Painting

In addition to his career in bookselling and publishing, Ferlinghetti devoted six decades to painting, with a significant portion of his artwork exhibited in galleries and museums across the United States.

During a 1996 visit to an art cooperative in Sandusky, Ohio, he created the piece titled The beautiful Madonna of Sandusky Oh! hi! O! And friend. This work was defaced and censored overnight by a janitor shortly after its completion. Ferlinghetti responded by humorously painting over the areas that had been altered.

In 2010, a comprehensive exhibition entitled 60 Years of Painting showcased Ferlinghetti's artistic journey in both Rome and Reggio Calabria.

Jack Kerouac Alley

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An example of Ferlinghetti's poetry displayed in San Francisco's Jack Kerouac Alley, adjacent to City Lights Bookstore

Ferlinghetti spearheaded the revitalization of Jack Kerouac Alley, situated beside his bookstore, beginning in 1987. He formally proposed the initiative to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, advocating for new paving and overall refurbishment.

Death

On February 22, 2021, Ferlinghetti passed away at his San Francisco residence due to interstitial lung disease, just weeks shy of turning 102. He was laid to rest in his family’s burial site at Bolinas Cemetery in Bolinas, California.

Awards

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Plaque for Career Award presented on October 28, 2017, at the Premio di Arti Letterarie Metropoli di Torino, Italy

Among the many honors bestowed upon Ferlinghetti were the Los Angeles Times' Robert Kirsch Award, the BABRA Award recognizing Lifetime Achievement, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Award for his contributions to American arts and letters, and the ACLU Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award. In 1973, he received the Premio Taormina, followed by additional distinctions in Italy such as the Premio Camaiore, Premio Flaiano, and Premio Cavour. On October 28, 2017, he was granted the Career Award during the XIV edition of the Premio di Arti Letterarie Metropoli di Torino held in Turin.

Ferlinghetti was appointed Poet Laureate of San Francisco in August 1998, a position he held for two years. His accolades continued with the Poetry Society of America’s Frost Medal in 2003, alongside the Author’s Guild Lifetime Achievement Award and election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The National Book Foundation honored him with its inaugural Literarian Award in 2005, acknowledging his exceptional service to American literature. In 2007, he was designated Commandeur of the French Order of Arts and Letters. The following year, Ferlinghetti received the John Ciardi Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry from the National Italian American Foundation, which recognizes outstanding contributions to Italian American poetry.

In 2012, Ferlinghetti was offered the first-ever Janus Pannonius International Poetry Prize by the Hungarian PEN Club. However, he declined this €50,000 award upon learning that Hungary’s government under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán partially sponsored it. He cited his opposition to Orbán’s "right-wing regime" and expressed concerns regarding restrictions on civil liberties and freedom of expression affecting Hungarian citizens.

In popular culture

Lawrence Ferlinghetti was acknowledged by Frank Zappa as an influence on his band’s music in the liner notes of their debut album Freak Out! (1966).

Ferlinghetti performed his poem Loud Prayer during The Band’s final concert, an event captured on film by Martin Scorsese and released as the documentary The Last Waltz (1978), featuring his recitation. The poet was also the focus of Christopher Felver’s 2013 documentary Lawrence Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder. Actor Andrew Rogers portrayed Ferlinghetti in the 2010 film Howl.

In 2011, Ferlinghetti contributed two poems—Song of the Third World War and Old Italians Dying—to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. These works were inspired by artists featured in the exhibition Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Italy 150, held in Turin, Italy during May and June of that year. Additionally, he collaborated with lithographer and abstract artist James Claussen on the book of lithographs titled The Sea Within Us, originally published in Italy as Il Mare Dentro in 2012. The Argentine writer Julio Cortázar referenced a poem from Ferlinghetti’s A Coney Island of the Mind in Chapter 121 of his novel Rayuela (Hopscotch) (1963).

Bibliography

• Tentative Description of a Dinner Given to Promote the Impeachment of President Eisenhower (Golden Mountain Press, 1958) – Broadside poem
• Her (New Directions, 1960) – Prose
• One Thousand Fearful Words for Fidel Castro (City Lights, 1961) – Broadside poem
• Starting from San Francisco (New Directions, 1961) – Poetry (hardcover edition includes LP with author reading selections)
• Journal for the Protection of All Beings (City Lights, 1961) – Journal
• Unfair Arguments with Existence (New Directions, 1963) – Short plays
• Where is VietNam? (Golden Mountain Press, 1963) – Broadside poem
• Routines (New Directions, 1964) – Collection of twelve short plays
• Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes (1968)
• On the Barracks: Journal for the Protection of All Beings 2 (City Lights, 1968) – Journal
• Tyrannus Nix? (New Directions, 1969) – Poetry
• The Secret Meaning of Things (New Directions, 1970) – Poetry
• The Mexican Night (New Directions, 1970) – Travel journal
• Back Roads to Far Towns After Basho (City Lights, 1970) – Poetry
• Love Is No Stone on the Moon (ARIF, 1971) – Poetry
• Open Eye, Open Heart (New Directions, 1973) – Poetry
• Who Are We Now? (New Directions, 1976) – Poetry
• Northwest Ecolog (City Lights, 1978) – Poetry
• Landscapes of Living and Dying (1980) ISBN 0-8112-0743-9
• Endless Life: Selected Poems (A New Directions Paperbook, 1981)
• Over All the Obscene Boundaries (1986)
• Love in the Days of Rage (E. P. Dutton, 1988; City Lights reprint, 2001) – Novel
• Wild Dreams of a New Beginning (New Directions, 1988) ISBN 978-0811210744
• A Buddha in the Woodpile (Atelier Puccini, 1993)
• These Are My Rivers: New & Selected Poems, 1955–1993 (New Directions, 1993) ISBN 0-8112-1252-1
• City Lights Pocket Poets Anthology (City Lights, 1995) ISBN 978-0-87286-311-8
• A Far Rockaway Of The Heart (New Directions, 1997) ISBN 0-8112-1347-1
• How to Paint Sunlight: Lyrics Poems & Others, 1997–2000 (New Directions, 2001) ISBN 0-8112-1463-X
• San Francisco Poems (City Lights Foundation, 2001) – Poetry ISBN 978-1-931404-01-3
• Life Studies, Life Stories (City Lights, 2003) ISBN 978-0-87286-421-4
• Americus: Part I (New Directions, 2004)
• A Coney Island of the Mind, Arion Press edition with portraits by R.B. Kitaj (2005)
• Poetry as Insurgent Art (New Directions, 2007) – Poetry
• Special fiftieth anniversary edition of A Coney Island of the Mind, including a CD featuring readings by Ferlinghetti himself (New Directions, 2008)
• 50 Poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti with accompanying images by Armando Milani (Rudiano Press, 2010) – Poetry and graphics ISBN 978-88-89044-65-0
• Time of Useful Consciousness, also known as Americus Book II, published by New Directions in 2012 ISBN 978-0-8112-2031-6, consisting of eighty-eight pages.
• 60th Anniversary Edition of City Lights Pocket Poets Anthology, published by City Lights in 2015.
• Selected correspondence between Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg from years spanning 1955 to 1997 compiled in I Greet You At The Beginning Of A Great Career, published by City Lights in 2015.
• A sixtieth anniversary edition of Pictures of the Gone World, released by City Lights in 2015.
• Travel journals spanning five decades compiled under Writing Across the Landscape: Travel Journals, 1960–2010, published by Norton in 2015 ISBN 978-1-63149-001-9.
• – Novel

Discography

• Kerouac: Kicks Joy Darkness (1997) – Featuring Lawrence Ferlinghetti with Helium; published by Rykodisc; includes Track 8: "Dream: On A Sunny Afternoon ..."
• Poetry Readings in the Cellar (with the Cellar Jazz Quintet) (1957) – Performed by Kenneth Rexroth and Lawrence Ferlinghetti; released as an LP by Fantasy Records (ID 7002)
• The Impeachment of Eisenhower (1958) – Lawrence Ferlinghetti; issued on LP by Fantasy Records (ID 7004)
• Tyrannus Nix? / Assassination Raga / Big Sur Sun Sutra / Moscow in the Wilderness (1970) – Lawrence Ferlinghetti; Fantasy Records LP (ID 7014)
• A Coney Island of the Mind (1999) – Lawrence Ferlinghetti; LP format from Rykodisc
• Pictures of the Gone World (2005) – Collaboration between Lawrence Ferlinghetti and David Amram; published by Synergy

Further reading

• Neeli Cherkovski, Ferlinghetti: A Biography, Doubleday, New York, 1979
• Ronald Collins and David Skover, Mania: The Story of the Outraged & Outrageous Lives that Launched a Cultural Revolution, Top-Five Books, 2013
• Bill Morgan (ed.), I Greet You at the Beginning of a Great Career: The Selected Correspondence of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg, 1955–1997, City Lights Publishers, San Francisco, 2015
• Walter Pescara, Lawrence Ferlinghetti – Italian Tour, Nicolodi, 2005 (2006 special edition, not for sale)
• Barry Silesky, Ferlinghetti: The Artist in His Time, Warner Books, New York, 1990
• Ira Silverberg, "Lawrence Ferlinghetti on the old San Francisco, his new novel, and his first 100 years," Document Journal, 2018
• Michael Skau, Constantly Risking Absurdity: The Writings of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Whitson, 1989
• Larry R. Smith, Lawrence Ferlinghetti: Poet-at-Large, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, IL, 1983
• Matt Theado, The Beats: A Literary Reference, Carroll & Graf, New York, 2003

External links

• Archivio Conz
• IMDb profile
• Guide to the Lawrence Ferlinghetti Papers at The Bancroft Library
• Lawrence Ferlinghetti at Literary Kicks
• Lawrence Ferlinghetti on American Poetry
• Amy Goodman interview transcript and streaming media on Democracy Now!
• Interview Magazine feature with Lawrence Ferlinghetti by Christopher Bollen, May 2013
• Audio interview with Stephen Banker from 1978
• Finding aid to Lawrence Ferlinghetti papers at Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library
• How a San Francisco bookstore proprietor transformed America’s cultural landscape, The Washington Post, February 25, 2021
• Exhibition of Ferlinghetti’s prints at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, scheduled for 2025
• Video of Ferlinghetti reading his poem "The Changing Light"