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he is 100 today

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03-20-2019 , 08:06 PM

Ray Zee

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,916

yes Lawrence Ferlinghetti the great beatnik style poet is 100. he fought in ww11 and became a poet in n.y.c. in greenwich village. moved to california and opened the famous city lights bookstore.

he was essentially the first poet to write in plain English as opposed to the un readable text used in the past.

he was tried but found not guilty during the days when you couldnt publish obscene things.

some of the above might be off as i am getting old with him.

Last edited by Ray Zee; 03-20-2019 at 08:28 PM.

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03-20-2019 , 08:39 PM

REDeYeS00

always sloppy

Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 22,748

actually he's 100 on sunday.
and it's really sad he doesn't want to attend his party at city lights because he's blind and won't be able to read.
he has been the constant thread in SF 'counterculture' from the 50's to the present day, somewhat due to his writing but mainly due to other writers he published...going on 70 plus years.
there's really no way to accurately measure the impact he's had on current thought because after several decades it permeates almost everything.

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03-20-2019 , 10:44 PM

John Cole

Lounge Nighthawk

Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 18,181

I still have my copy of Coney Island of the Mind from junior year in college. Should dig it out and see how much it cost in 1974.

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03-21-2019 , 02:40 AM

Ray Zee

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,916

2 bucks. i think i had pics of a gone world

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03-21-2019 , 07:37 AM

kioshk

Nixonian

Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 92,827

I visited City Lights bookstore in January 1980, pretty cool. I'd heard all about the Beat people, had read Kerouac's On the Road and Dharma Bums etc. That sense of restless alienation connected strongly with the young version of me.

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03-24-2019 , 06:53 PM

REDeYeS00

always sloppy

Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 22,748

he is 100 today.
congrats Lawrence.

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03-24-2019 , 09:23 PM

Ray Zee

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,916

thanks red eye

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03-25-2019 , 07:32 PM

REDeYeS00

always sloppy

Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 22,748

let us remember that after LF and City Lights published Howl in 1956 the book was banned and LF was put on trial for obscenity.

here is the first known recorded reading of Howl by Ginsberg, at Reed College in 1956, a few months before City Lights published the book.

http://www.openculture.com/2013/06/h...howl_1956.html

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