A Brief History of Lawrence Ferlinghetti

A Brief History of Lawrence Ferlinghetti

A prominent voice of the wide-open poetry movement that began in the

1950s, Lawrence Ferlinghetti has written poetry, translation, fiction,

theater, art criticism, film narration, and essays. Often concerned

with politics and social issues, Ferlinghetti’s poetry countered the

literary elite's definition of art and the artist's role in the world.

Though imbued with the commonplace, his poetry cannot be simply

described as polemic or personal protest, for it stands on his

craftsmanship, thematics, and grounding in

tradition.

Ferlinghetti was born in Yonkers in 1919, son of Carlo Ferlinghetti

who was from the province of Brescia and Clemence Albertine

Mendes-Monsanto. Following his undergraduate years at the University

of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he served in the U.S. Navy in World

War II as a ship's commander. He received a Master’s degree from

Columbia University in 1947 and a Doctorate de l’Université de Paris

(Sorbonne) in 1950. From 1951 to 1953, when he settled in San

Francisco, he taught French in an adult education program, painted,

and wrote art criticism. In 1953, with Peter D. Martin, he founded

City Lights Bookstore, the first all-paperbound bookshop in the

country, and by 1955 he had launched the City Lights publishing house.

The bookstore has served for half a century as a meeting place for

writers, artists, and intellectuals. City Lights Publishers began with

the Pocket Poets Series, through which Ferlinghetti aimed to create an

international, dissident ferment. His publication of Allen Ginsberg’s

Howl in 1956 led to his arrest on obscenity charges, and the trial

that followed drew national attention to the San Francisco Renaissance

and Beat movement writers. (He was overwhelmingly supported by

prestigious literary and academic figures, and was acquitted.) This

landmark First Amendment case established a legal precedent for the

publication of controversial work with redeeming social importance.

Ferlinghetti’s paintings have been shown at various galleries around

the world, from the Butler Museum of American Painting to Il Palazzo

delle Esposizioni in Rome. He has been associated with the

international Fluxus movement through the Archivio Francesco Conz in

Verona. He has toured Italy, giving poetry readings in Roma, Napoli,

Bologna, Firenze, Milano, Verona, Brescia, Cagliari, Torino, Venezia,

and Sicilia. He won the Premio Taormino in 1973, and since then has

been awarded the Premio Camaiore, the Premio Flaiano, the Premio

Cavour. among others. He is published in Italy by Oscar Mondadori,

City Lights Italia, and Minimum Fax. He was instrumental in arranging

extensive poetry tours in Italy produced by City Lights Italia in

Firenze. He has translated from the Italian Pier Paolo Pasolin’s Poemi

Romani, which is published by City Lights Books. In San Francisco, his

work can regularly be seen at the George Krevsky Gallery at 77 Geary