Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti was an influential American poet, publisher, and a key figure in the Beat movement, known for his commitment to making poetry accessible to the public. Born into a non-traditional family and raised in both France and New York, his early life experiences significantly shaped his artistic identity. In 1953, Ferlinghetti established the City Lights Bookshop in San Francisco, which became a hub for counterculture literature, including the groundbreaking publication of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" in 1956, which led to a landmark obscenity trial. His poetry is characterized by open forms and rhythms inspired by colloquial speech and jazz, challenging conventional academic standards. Notable works such as "A Coney Island of the Mind" and "The World Is a Beautiful Place" reflect themes of alienation and the quest for identity in the modern world. Throughout his career, Ferlinghetti remained a prolific writer and advocate for political radicalism, earning recognition such as his election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2003. He celebrated his 100th birthday in March 2019, which was officially recognized in San Francisco, and continued to produce poetry until his passing on February 22, 2021.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Poet
- Born: March 24, 1919
- Birthplace: Yonkers, New York
- Died: February 22, 2021
- Place of Death: San Francisco, California
Author Profile
Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s early life contributed to a lifelong search for identity. The poet grew up without a traditional family; he spent the earliest years of his life in France with an aunt who later brought him back to New York, where he attended public schools and became involved in gang activity. A later private education, however, provided the motivation that would lead to his university degrees at Columbia and the Sorbonne.
In 1953, Ferlinghetti moved to San Francisco and founded the City Lights Bookshop, which carried works of counterculture writers, such as Allen Ginsberg, not readily available elsewhere. His 1956 publication of Ginsberg’s Howl led to a nationally publicized obscenity trial. Thereafter, Ferlinghetti became associated with the Beat movement in its efforts to expand the audience for poetry and art by removing them from the university and returning them to the people. Beat literature is thus characterized by its alienation from prevailing literary and social standards. Since the 1950s Ferlinghetti’s City Lights Bookshop has been the leader in distributing radical literature to a popular audience.
Ferlinghetti’s early poetry typifies the Beat search for open forms based on rhythms of colloquial speech and jazz. His work challenges the status quo of academic poetry. Pictures of the Gone World and A Coney Island of the Mind develop an experimental form of lyrical poetry famous for unjustified left margins and an irreverent, comic tone. “The World Is a Beautiful Place” and “Constantly Risking Absurdity,” two of Ferlinghetti’s most famous poems, exemplify the poet’s and the individual’s endless search for identity, for discovering the essential self in an alien modern world. In “Christ Climbed Down” Ferlinghetti applies his theme of alienation to Christianity: Christ himself would be alienated from the modern world if he were here. Ferlinghetti’s popularity was firmly established with A Coney Island of the Mind, often claimed to be the best-selling book of serious poetry published since 1950.
After the 1950s and 1960s, Ferlinghetti remained a prolific poet and leader in the later phases of the Beat movement. These Are My Rivers, a collection of his work spanning five decades, shows a steady growth of poetic voice while remaining consistent with convictions of political radicalism and the belief in the power of the poetic imagination to transform the world. He earned election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2003. In 2013, he published a collection of poems titled Time of Useful Consciousness, and in 2015, he published a collection of travel journals known as Writing across the Landscape.
In March of 2019, as the esteemed poet turned 100, the city of San Francisco honored Ferlinghetti by proclaiming his birthday, March 24, "Lawrence Ferlinghetti Day". Ferlinghetti died of interstitial lung disease on February 22, 2021.
Bibliography
Cherkovski, Neeli. Ferlinghetti: A Biography. Garden City: Doubleday, 1979. Print.
Felver, Christopher. Ferlinghetti Portrait. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith, 1998. Print.
Ferlinghetti, Lawrence, and Allen Ginsberg. I Greet You at the Beginning of a Great Career: The Selected Correspondence of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg, 1955–1997. Ed. Bill Morgan. San Francisco: City Lights, 2015. Print.
Kherdian, David. Six Poets of the San Francisco Renaissance: Portraits and Checklists. Fresno: Giligia, 1967. Print.
Kush, S. S., dir. Ferlinghetti, City Lights, and the Beats in San Francisco: From the Margins to the Mainstream. San Francisco: Cloud House, 1996. Film.
Meltzer, David. The San Francisco Poets. New York: Ballantine, 1971. Print.
Silesky, Barry. Ferlinghetti: The Artist in His Time. New York: Warner, 1990. Print.
Skau, Michael. “Constantly Risking Absurdity”: Essays on the Writings of Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Troy: Whitston, 1989. Print.
Smith, Larry R. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Poet-at-Large. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1983. Print.
Stephenson, Gregory. The Daybreak Boys: Essays on the Literature of the Beat Generation. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1990. Print.