Lawrence Ferlinghetti

**Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti** (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Bookstore. He was the author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, and movie narration. Many of his works were inspired and about the city of San Francisco.

## Poetry

Ferlinghetti’s poetry is based on lyric and narrative traditions. His themes are the beauty of nature, the tragicomic life of the common man, the situation of the individual in mass society, and the dream and betrayal of democracy.

## Painting

Ferlinghetti began painting in Paris in 1948. In San Francisco he occupied a studio that he inherited from Hassel Smith. His first works show the influence the New York abstract expressionists. A more figurative style is apparent in his later works. Ferlinghetti’s paintings have been shown at various museums around the world.

_60 years of painting_, the exhibition held in Italy in 2010, is a creative journey through the twentieth century, reflecting on the role of the artist nowadays.

## Death

Ferlinghetti died of lung disease on February 22, 2021 at his home in San Francisco at age 101.

## Awards

Ferlinghetti received the Premio Taormina in 1973. He also received the Premio Camaiore, the Premio Flaiano, the Premio Cavour, among other honors in Italy.

From 2009 he was on the Honour Committee of IMMAGINE&POESIA, the artistic literary movement founded in Turin, Italy, with the patronage of Aeronwy Thomas (Dylan Thomas's daughter).

## Selected works

- _Pictures of the Gone World_ (City Lights, 1955) Poetry (enlarged, 1995)
- _A Coney Island of the Mind_ (http://www.ndpublishing.com/home.html  New Directions, 1958) Poetry
- _Her_ (New Directions, 1960) Prose
- _One Thousand Fearful Words for Fidel Castro_ (City Lights, 1961) Broadside poem
- _These Are My Rivers: New & Selected Poems, 1955-1993_ (New Directions, 1993)
- _City Lights Pocket Poets Anthology_ (City Lights, 1995)
- _A Far Rockaway Of The Heart_ (New Directions, 1998)
- _How to Paint Sunlight: Lyrics Poems & Others, 1997-2000_ (New Directions, 2001)
- _San Francisco Poems_ (City Lights Foundation, 2001) Poetry
- _Life Studies, Life Stories_ (City Lights, 2003)
- _Americus: Part I_ (New Directions, 2004)
- _A Coney Island of the Mind_ (Arion Press, 2005),  with portraiture by R.B. Kitaj
- _Poetry as Insurgent Art_ (New Directions, 2007) Poetry
- _A Coney Island of the Mind: Special 50th Anniversary Edition with a CD of the author reading his work_ (New Directions, 2008)
- _50 poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti 50 images by Armando Milani_ (http://www.gamonline.it/?pagina=edizioni&scheda=107 Rudiano, 2010) Poetry and Graphics

## Related pages

- List of poets from North America

## Infobox (writer)

- **name**: Lawrence Ferlinghetti
- **image**: Ferlinghetti (cropped).jpg
- **imagesize**: 230px
- **caption**: Lawrence Ferlinghetti at City Lights in 2007
- **birth name**: Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti
- **birth place**: Yonkers, New York, Yonkers, New York (state), New York, United States, U.S.
- **death place**: San Francisco, California, U.S.
- **occupation**: Poet, activist, essayist, Painting, painter
- **movement**: Beat generation, Beat, New American Poetry, New American Poets, Postmodernism, IMMAGINE&POESIA