Died: February 22, 2021. LAWRENCE Ferlinghetti, who has died aged 101, was an American literary revolutionary who opened out the world of books to all. As a poet, his work possessed a pared-back directness and Zen simplicity. He wrote for the tongue as much as the page, and delivered his words in energetic sing-song tones that paved the way for spoken-word scenes to come. His 1958 collection, A Coney Island of the Mind, sold more than a million copies. He once said that “art should be accessible to all people, not just a handful of highly-educated intellectuals”. As a bookseller, his shop, City Lights, adopted a similarly egalitarian, open-all-hours approach that made it the nexus of San Francisco’s underground Beat scene in search of late-night literary fixes.
BusinessWorld
March 3, 2021 | 12:02 am
LAWRENCE Ferlinghetti, the poet and bookstore owner whose publication of Allen Ginsbergâs poem
Howl in 1956 led to a landmark obscenity trial that spotlighted the Beat literary movement, died at the age of 101.
He died on Feb. 22 at his home in San Francisco, according to
The Washington Post, citing his son Lorenzo. The cause was lung disease.
Mr. Ferlinghettiâs City Lights became the nationâs first all-paperback bookstore when it opened in San Franciscoâs North Beach section in 1953. Since then, it has served as a gathering place for writers, artists and bohemians, from Jack Kerouac and the Beats to hippies, punk rockers and iPhone-carrying hipsters.
February 26, 2021
When Lawrence Ferlinghetti died this week at age 101, nearly one month shy of his 102nd birthday, many of my friends, even writer friends, expressed surprise on social media.
I didn’t even know he was still alive!
Indeed, Ferlinghetti outlived all the younger Beat writers he once published, including Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Greg Corso. When
The New York Times, in a 2005 interview, asked him why, he answered, “Kerouac drank himself to death, and Burroughs, when he was young, thought the healthiest person was one who had enough money to stay on heroin all his life. I really never got into drugs. I smoked a little dope, and I did a little LSD, but that was it. I was afraid of it, frankly. I don’t like to be out of control.”
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the poet and bookstore owner whose publication of Allen Ginsberg’s poem
Howl in 1956 led to a landmark obscenity trial that spotlighted the Beat literary movement, has died. He was 101.
He died on Feb 22 at his home in San Francisco, according to the
Washington Post, citing his son Lorenzo. The cause was lung disease.
Ferlinghetti’s City Lights became the nation’s first all-paperback bookstore when it opened in San Francisco’s North Beach section in 1953. Since then, it has served as a gathering place for writers, artists and bohemians, from Jack Kerouac and the Beats to hippies, punk rockers and iPhone-carrying hipsters.
Author Lawrence Ferlinghetti appears in Oct. 8, 1988 (AP Photo/Frankie Ziths, File)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the poet, publisher, bookseller and activist who helped launch the Beat movement in the 1950s and embodied its curious and rebellious spirit well into the 21st century, has died at age 101.
Ferlinghetti, a San Francisco institution, died Monday at his home, his son Lorenzo Ferlinghetti said. A month shy of his 102nd birthday, Ferlinghetti died “in his own room,” holding the hands of his son and his son’s girlfriend, “as he took his last breath.” The cause of death was lung disease. Ferlinghetti had received the first dose of the COVID vaccine last week, his son said Tuesday.