Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers.He began his journalism career by writing sports for The Daily Tar Heel,[7] and published his first short stories in Carolina Magazine, for which Thomas Wolfe had written.[17] Ferlinghetti concludes his poem with the recognition that "suffering humanity" today might be painted as average Americans drowning in the materialism: "on a freeway fifty lanes wide/ a concrete continent/ spaced with bland billboards/ illustrating imbecile illusions of happiness."[20] Ferlinghetti took a distinctly populist approach to poetry, emphasizing throughout his work "that art should be accessible to all people, not just a handful of highly educated intellectuals."[21] Larry Smith, an American author and editor, stated that Ferlinghetti is a poet "of the people engaged conscientiously in the creation of new poetic and cultural forms."[6] This perception of art as a broad socio-cultural force, as opposed to an elitist academic enterprise, is explicitly evident in Poem 9 from Pictures of the Gone World, wherein the speaker states: "'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).[22] Reflecting his broad aesthetic concerns, Ferlinghetti's poetry often engages with several non-literary artistic forms, most notably jazz music and painting.[23] Soon after settling in San Francisco in 1951, Ferlinghetti met the poet Kenneth Rexroth, whose concepts of philosophical anarchism influenced his political development.[24] While Ferlinghetti said he was "an anarchist at heart", he conceded that the world would need to be populated by "saints" in order for pure anarchism to be lived practically.[26] On January 14, 1967, he was a featured presenter at the Gathering of the tribes "Human Be-In," which drew tens of thousands of people and launched what would become known as San Francisco's "Summer of Love"."[28]Alongside his bookselling and publishing, Ferlinghetti painted for 60 years and much of his work was displayed in galleries and museums throughout the United States.[44] The National Book Foundation honored him with the inaugural Literarian Award (2005), given for outstanding service to the American literary community.After learning that the government of Hungary under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is a partial sponsor of the €50,000 prize, he declined to accept the award.
Yonkers, New YorkUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel HillColumbia UniversityUniversity of ParisBeat poetryCity Lights Booksellers & PublishersA Coney Island of the Mindturned 100BresciaPortuguese Sephardic JewishNorthfield Mount HermonThe Daily Tar HeelThomas WolfeU.S. NavyWorld War IIsubmarine chaserNormandy invasionJohn RuskinJ. M. W. TurnerEdmund Kirby-SmithSorbonneCity LightsNorth BeachPeter D. MartinSan Francisco State UniversityAllen GinsbergFirst AmendmentNational Museum of American HistoryWhitmanMark TwainEmily DickinsonEdna St. Vincent MillayNerudaMayakovskyPasoliniCaffe TriesteT. S. EliotJack FoleyGolden Gate ParkLarry SmithWilliam Carlos Williamsjazz musicKenneth Rexrothphilosophical anarchismphilosophical anarchistCity Lights Bookstoreanarchismdemocratic socialismFair Play for Cuba CommitteeGathering of the tribesHuman Be-InSummer of LoveWriters and Editors War Tax Protestincome taxprotest against the Vietnam WarCentral FreewayboulevardEmbarcaderoSandusky, OhiovandalizedcensoredReggio CalabriaJack Kerouac AlleySan Francisco Board of Supervisorsinterstitial lung diseaseBolinas, CaliforniaLos Angeles TimesNational Book Critics CircleEarl WarrenPoetry Society of AmericaAmerican Academy of Arts and LettersNational Book FoundationLiterarian AwardFrench Order of Arts and LettersJohn CiardiJanus Pannonius International Poetry PrizeHungarian PEN ClubViktor OrbánHungaryThe BandMartin ScorseseThe Last WaltzChristopher Felveranniversary of Italian unificationJames ClaussenJulio CortázarRayuelaStarting from San FranciscoTwo Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a MercedesR.B. KitajDoubledayThe Washington PostThe GuardianDemocracy Now!The New York TimesContemporary Poetry ReviewConfrontationItalian AmericanaKelly, KevinWhole Earth ReviewHerbert ReedNew York PostWayback MachineDaily NewsThe Times of IsraelPoetry FoundationPoliticoDocument JournalThe Bancroft LibraryYouTubePoets in The New American Poetry 1945–1960Helen AdamJohn AshberyPaul BlackburnRobin BlaserRay BremserBrother AntoninusJames BroughtonPaul CarrollGregory CorsoRobert CreeleyEdward DornKirby DoyleRobert DuncanLarry EignerEdward Field