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.Lawrence Ferlinghetti: 60 years of painting, edited by Giada Diano and Elisa Polimeni, Silvana Editoriale, Cinisello Balsamo (MI), 2009

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 (  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 ( Rudiano, 2010) Poetry and Graphics 

 Related pages 
List of poets from North America

References

Category:1919 births
Category:2021 deaths
Category:American poets
Category:Beat Generation
Category:People from Yonkers, New York
Category:Columbia University alumni
Category:Writers from New York (state)
Category:Deaths from lung disease
Category:Disease-related deaths in San Francisco
Category:Writers from San Francisco
Category:American essayists
Category:American political activists
Category:American painters
Category:American centenarians