LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI

poet, novelist, playwright, publisher, critic, social activist, and visual artist.

Documentary film Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder. 

Bob Donlin, Neal Cassady, Allen Gingsberg, Robert LaVinge and Lawrence Ferlinghetti

BIOGRAPHY

Ferlinghetti was born in Yonkers(New York) in 1919

He earned a Bachelor of Arts in journalism in 1941 in University of North Carolina

WORLD WAR II(1939-1945)

Atomic bomb fell on Nagasaki

Served as navigator of the troop ship USS Selinur.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY AND THE SORBONNE

The G.I.Bill (Servicemen’s Readjustment Act) enabled him to study at University

Master’s degree in English literature in 1947 in Columbia University

Doctorate at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1950

In 1953, with Peter D. Martin, he founded City Lights Bookstore, the first all-paperbound bookshop in the country

SAN FRANCISCO – CITY LIGHTS BOOKS

His own first book of

poems, Pictures of the

Gone World.

-City Lights Publishers began with the Pocket Poets Series

-City Lights Publishers expanded its list from poetry to include:

-prose: novels, biography, memories, essays and cultural studies

-political books

-In City Lights Bookstore Monday Night was “Blabbermouth

Night”

BEAT GENERATION

The Beat Generation was a group of American post-World War II writers, among them were Jack kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and William Burroughs.

C

entral elements of "Beat" culture:

rejection of received standards

innovations in style

u

se of illegal drugs

alternative sexualities

a

n interest in religion

a

rejection of materialism

B

eat writers and artists flocked to Greenwich

Village in New York City in the late 1950s

F

olksongs, readings and discussions often took

place in Washington Square Park

His publication of Allen Ginsberg's Howl & Other

Poems in 1956 led to his arrest

HOWL

The poem is considered to be one of the great works of the Beat Generation

“Howl” Trial

On October 4, 1957, in the Municipal Court of San Francisco, Judge Clayton W. Horn ruled that the poem was not obscene

POET

 - A Far Rockaway of the Heart (ND, 1997) won a silver medal, in the

category of Poetry, in the California Book Awards, sponsored by The

Commonwealth Club of California.

L

awrence Ferlinghetti, is best known as the author of his classic poetry collection, A Coney Island of the

Mind, which has been translated into nine languages.

O

n August 11, 1998, Ferlinghetti was named San Francisco's first poet laureate.

H

e received The Before Columbus Foundation "Lifetime Achievement Award" for the twentieth annual

American Book Awards for 1999.

I

n 2001 he was one of two American poets chosen to participate in the second celebration of UNESCO’s

World Poetry Day in Delphi, Greece

I

n December 2006, Ferlinghetti was named a Commandeur in the French Order of Arts and Letters.

PAINTER

F

erlinghetti began painting in Paris in 1948

G

alleries around the world from the Butler Museum of American Painting to Il Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome.

P

aintings:

"Don't Give Me"

"Conquer"

"Unfinished Flag of the United States“

S

ince 2009 he has been in the Honour Committee of Immagine & Poesia, the artistic literary movement

founded in Turin, Italy, with the patronage of Aeronwy Thomas (Dylan Thomas's daughter).

6

0 years of painting, the exhibition held in Italy in 2010

JACK KEROUAC ALLEY

J

ack Kerouac Alley (formerly Adler Alley or Adler Place) is a one-way alleyway in Chinatown that

connects Grant Avenue and Columbus Avenue

I

n 1987, Lawrence Ferlinghetti was the initiator of the transformation of Jack Kerouac Alley located at

the side of his shop.

”The Poet Who Brought You Some Freedom of Speech”