Biography
Early life
Lawrence Ferlinghetti was born in Yonkers New York on March 24th, 1919. The youngest of five sons, his mother Albertine Mendes-Monsanto was of French/Portuguese Jewish decent and his immigrant father Carlo Ferlinghetti was born in Brescia Italy. Originally named Lawrence Monsanto Ferling, his father shortened the last name once arriving to the America’s in 1894. Ferlinghetti had a tumultuous youth; his father died just shy of his birth causing his mother’s mental health to decline and her commitment into an insane asylum shortly after. Ferlinghetti bounced between family members and orphanages until he was taken in by his Aunt Emily Monsanto. They traveled to Strasbourg France where they lived during his first five years of life. French became his first language until they resituated back in Long Island, New York. The Monsanto’s funds fluctuated wildly, causing Ferlinghetti’s malnutrition and diagnosis of rickets. Despite his illness, he persevered and adapted to his surroundings. Ferlinghetti began writing poetry at the young age of twelve when he discovered his love for expressing his emotions. After jumping from multiple high schools throughout his youth, Ferlinghetti attended University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was awarded a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1941. The year following his graduation, he enlisted in the military for a naval officer position after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Nearing the end of the war, Ferlinghetti made a visit to Nagasaki just weeks after the atomic bomb, the experience that guided his interest in politics. After his time in the military, he devoted himself completely to his studies and decided to further his education by earning a masters in literature from Columbia University and his doctorate from the Sorbonne in Paris.
THE beat movement
The beat generation was the post war generation that was brought up during the great depression, matured during the years of the uprooting of World War II and lived through a civil war era (179, Mcdarrah). Ferlinghetti played an existential part in the creation of the beat movement with his City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, California founded in 1954 and his City Lights publishing house established in 1955 (City Lights Books). City Lights Bookstore became a meeting place for artists, poets and writers and offered a forum to those who wanted to showcase their talents such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, who both read their works at the bookstore (108, Mcdarrah). In 1955, Ferlinghetti introduced the Pocket Poets Series, which aimed to publish works of poets such as those of Ginsberg and Kerouac that went beyond literary restraints and let real experiences speak for themselves in their natural crude, intimate and free spirited forms (78, Mcdarrah). Ferlinghetti became the beacon for the beats by guiding the way for literary respectability amongst beat poets (748, Theado). Ferlinghetti’s City Lights publishing house published works of poetry into paperback books that pushed the boundaries of rising cultural, social and political issues (17, Kinsella). Ferlinghetti made national headlines when he published Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems in 1956 for obscenity and also published Kerouac's Big Sur (17, Kinsella). City Lights Bookstore has been a “literary meeting place” for half a century and continues to be a landmark bookstore showcasing works that break free from the traditional forms of literature. (749,Theado). With about 200 books in print, Ferlinghetti’s City Lights Publishing House continues to publish innovative poetry that takes a stance on today's issues (City Lights Books).
City lights books
City Lights Booksellers and Publishers was established in 1953 by Peter Martin and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Ferlinghetti met Peter Martin as he was “Driving up Columbus Ave. in the North Beach District one morning in June 1953, Ferlinghetti saw someone mounting a sign reading ‘City Lights Pocket Bookstore.’ On a whim, he parked and struck up a conversation with Peter Martin, a sociology teacher at San Francisco State University. Within minutes, a deal had been struck. Ferlinghetti offered $500 to match Martin's investment of the same meager amount. On a handshake, Ferlinghetti had become part owner of a bookstore with a nascent publishing program” (Emblidge, 31). The approach to bookselling was always “playful” states Emblidge; “in the spirit of Charlie Chaplin’s ‘City Lights’” (31). City Lights was originally a bookstore whose main ambition was to sell paperback books that were affordable unlike hardcovers. A year after Ferlinghetti’s arrival, Martin left San Francisco leaving Ferlinghetti to take charge of City Lights and his first move was to publish the Pocket Poet Series, starting with his own work of poetry and later the famed work of Allen Ginsberg. The store itself began as a small shop in a building which housed other businesses, but as the years went by business started to go under and City Lights began to consume the spaces left behind. Today, it stands as a four room bookshop. The basement is where the nonfiction literature lives, the main floor houses fictional literature, the side room which used to be a barber shop is known as the “Third World Fiction Room” (Emblidge, 35), giving the opportunity for world literature to be found, and the final room is the Poetry Room which stores a large collection of poetic works, “We range from Auden to Zukofsky” said Ferlinghetti. City Lights in the 50’s was a meeting place for Beatniks and today remains to be a part of American history, upholding the same values as it did when it first started out.
published works
Lawrence Ferlinghetti had an illustrious career. He is well known for opening City Lights Book and being a frontrunner for the Beat Movement. Ferlinghetti played a big role not only as a publisher, but as a contributing poet. His published works include: Americus Book I (2004), How to Paint Sunlight (2001), A Far Rockaway of the Heart (1997), and A Coney Island of the Mind (1958). Ferlinghetti’s A Coney Island of the Mind is his most popular work having nearly 1,000,000 copies in print. Asides from the sheer number of copies that have been made, it has been translated into nine different languages. Asides from his written poetry in A Coney Island of the Mind, he has also written plays, art critiques, fiction, and essays. He is quite well rounded, but his most prized works are his poetry. Ferlinghetti has received many awards and has traveled to different countries promoting his works. He was most recently awarded in 2003 and was privileged with being San Francisco’s poet laureate. Essentially, his published works have skyrocketed him to the forefront of the Beat Movement. Lastly, Ferlinghetti’s A Coney Island of the Mind is the most popular poetry book in the United States.