Ferlinghetti, Lawrence

Ferlinghetti, Lawrence (fûr`lĭng-gĕt`ē), 1919–, American author and publisher, b. Yonkers, N.Y. In 1951 he moved to San Francisco and helped found the City Lights Bookshop, which became a center for writers of the beat generation. He has written volumes of colloquial verse such as A Coney Island of the Mind (1958), Starting from San Francisco (1967), and Open Eye, Open Heart (1974), as well as essays, broadsides, and the surrealist novel Her (1960). He encouraged and published many Beat writers, notably Allen Ginsberg.

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Ferlinghetti, Lawrence (Monsanto)

 orig. Lawrence Ferling

(born March 24, 1919, Yonkers, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. poet. Ferlinghetti attended Columbia University and the Sorbonne. A founder of the Beat movement in San Francisco in the mid 1950s, he established the City Lights bookstore, an early gathering place of the Beats. The publishing arm of City Lights was the first to print the Beats' poetry. His own poetry—lucid, witty, and composed to be read aloud—became popular in coffeehouses and on college campuses. His collections include Pictures of the Gone World (1955), the widely popular A Coney Island of the Mind (1958), and Endless Love (1981).

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Ferlinghetti, Lawrence (Monsanto) (b. Lawrence Ferling) (1919–  ) poet, writer; born in New York City. He attended the University of North Carolina (B.A. 1941), Columbia University (M.A. 1948), and the Sorbonne (1948–51). He settled in San Francisco (1951), taught French (1951–53), and was a founder of City Lights (1952), a bookstore and publishing house. He was regarded as a founder of the Beat poetry movement, as in A Coney Island of the Mind (1958), and was also a playwright and novelist.