American poet Allen Ginsberg.
Credit: Public Domain (Dutch National Archives)

April is National Poetry Month, an annual celebration of this unique form of literature. Each week, Behind the Headlines will feature the art of poetry or a famous poet.

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness….”

So begins the epic poem Howl by the American poet Allen Ginsberg. In the poem, Ginsberg rails at length against dehumanizing forces in modern society. He also laments their effect on the people in his life.

Howl, first read publicly in October 1955, shocked audiences with its graphic descriptions of violence, mental illness, sexuality, and drug abuse. The poem’s publisher, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, was even charged with obscenity. However, Howl came to be seen as a revolutionary work of great indignation and humanity, and Ginsberg has come to be honored among the greatest modern poets.

Ginsberg was born on June 3, 1926, in Newark, New Jersey. He became known as a leader of the beat literary movement of the 1950′s and also of the cultural and political protests of the 1960′s. Critics have praised him as a prophetic poet in the tradition of William Blake of England and Walt Whitman of the United States.

Ginsberg’s writing combines the spiritual and rhythmic qualities of certain Eastern and Western religious texts with the language, imagery, and subject matter of modern life. Many critics see him as representing a struggle for spiritual survival in a dehumanized, repressive society.

The death of Ginsberg’s mother in 1956 inspired his famous elegy “Kaddish” (1961). His other works include Reality Sandwiches (1963), The Fall of America: Poems of These States (1972), and Mind Breaths (1978). Ginsberg died on April 5, 1997. His Collected Poems 1947-1997 was published in 2006. Wait Till I’m Dead: Uncollected Poems was published in 2016.

American poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Credit: © Robert Altman, Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

April is National Poetry Month, an annual celebration of this unique form of literature. Each week, Behind the Headlines will feature the art of poetry or a famous poet.

San Francisco, California, is home to such famous landmarks as Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, and City Lights bookstore. In 1953, the independent bookstore was founded by the American poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021) and his friend Peter Martin. The store became a gathering place for the Beat movement and other avant-garde (experimental) writers and artists of the 1950’s. The Beats were writers who disapproved of commercialism and middle-class American values. Ferlinghetti was best known as a leader of the Beat movement.

Ferlinghetti wrote in colloquial (conversational) free verse. Free verse is a style of poetry that does not follow traditional rules of poetry composition. His poetry describes the need to release literature and life from conformity and timidity. The grotesque and a feeling of intense excitement are combined in his work, especially in his most famous poetry collection, A Coney Island of the Mind (1958). The collection is also a satiric criticism of American culture. Satire is the use of wit to attack human conduct or institutions.

Lawrence Monsanto Ferling was born on March 24, 1919, in Yonkers, New York. His father, an Italian immigrant, had shortened the family name, Ferlinghetti, after coming to the United States. As an adult, Lawrence learned about his father’s original name and eventually took it as his own. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1941 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II (1939-1945), he earned a master’s degree in literature from Columbia University in 1947 and a doctorate degree in literature from the Sorbonne in Paris, France, in 1950.

When he returned to the United States, Ferlinghetti settled in San Francisco, California. There, in 1953, he and Peter Martin established the City Lights bookstore. In 1955, Ferlinghetti started a publishing company, also called City Lights. He published his own first volume of poetry, Pictures of the Gone World (1955), as well as works by Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Kenneth Rexroth, and others.

Ferlinghetti’s other collections of poetry include Endless Life: Selected Poems (1981); These Are My Rivers: New and Selected Poems, 1955-1993 (1993); A Far Rockaway of the Heart (1997); and How to Paint Sunlight: Lyric Poems and Others, 1997-2000 and San Francisco Poems (both 2001). His novels include Her (1960) and Love in the Days of Rage (1988). Poetry as Insurgent Art (2007) contains his writings on the nature of poetry. Writing Across the Landscape (2015) is a collection of travel journal entries written from 1960 to 2010. In 2019, Ferlinghetti published Little Boy, an autobiographical prose poem. He also published plays and composed oral messages—poems to be spoken to jazz accompaniment. Ferlinghetti died on Feb. 22, 2021.

March 25, 2019

Yesterday, March 24, the American poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti celebrated his 100th birthday. Ferlinghetti is best known as a leader of the Beat movement of the 1950′s. The Beats were writers who rejected commercialism and middle-class American values. A birthday party for the centenarian (100-year-old) poet was held yesterday at City Lights, the famous San Francisco bookstore that Ferlinghetti co-founded in 1953. The city of San Francisco marked his birthday by declaring March 24 “Lawrence Ferlinghetti Day.”

The famed American poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti turned 100 years old on March 24, 2019. Credit: © Robert Altman, Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti was born in Yonkers, New York, in 1919. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1941 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. After serving in the United States Navy during World War II (1939-1945), he earned a master’s degree in literature from Columbia University in 1947 and a doctorate in literature from the Sorbonne in Paris, France, in 1950.

When he returned to the United States, Ferlinghetti settled in San Francisco. There, in 1953, he and a friend, Peter Martin, established the City Lights bookstore. The store became a gathering place for Beat and avant-garde (experimental) writers and artists. In 1955, Ferlinghetti started a publishing company, also called City Lights. He published his own first volume of poetry, Pictures of the Gone World (1955), as well as works by Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Kenneth Rexroth, and other writers. Ferlinghetti’s most famous poetry collection, A Coney Island of the Mind (1958), is a satiric criticism of American culture.

Ferlinghetti writes in colloquial free verse. His poetry describes the need to release literature and life from conformity and timidity. He believes Zen Buddhism and love can open the soul to truth and beauty. Aside from numerous volumes of poetry, Ferlinghetti has also written literary criticism, novels, plays, travelogues, and the 2019 autobiographical prose poem Little Boy. He is also known for his paintings and his support for liberal political and social causes.