Lawrence Ferlinghetti, chronicler of the Beat Generation, poet, and co-founder of San Francisco's City Lights Bookshop, will visit the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum on Thursday, Oct. 26, for a reading and book signing. The public portion of the program begins at 6:45 p.m.; seating for the reading is on a first-come basis.
Named San Francisco's Poet Laureate in 1998, Ferlinghetti is considered by many a cherished fixture of the city. In 1953, along with business partner Peter D. Martin, Ferlinghetti founded City Lights, which went on to publish such seminal American literary works as Allen Ginsberg's Howl, the poetry of Gary Snyder, and the novels of Jack Kerouac. Over the decades, City Lights has become a beacon for avant-garde literary work of all kinds.
His readings on Thursday will include excerpts from his most popular collection of poems: A Coney Island of the Mind. Published in 1958, the volume has since been translated into nine languages.
His other fiction includes: Pictures from the Gone World (1953), The Secret Meaning of Things (1973), Landscapes of Living and Dying (1980), Over All the Obscene Boundaries (1986), and Americus: Part I (2004).
In addition to writing and publishing poetry and running the bookstore, Ferlinghetti is a painter whose work has been exhibited in galleries and museums.
His appearance is part of the Athenaeum series: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, planned in conjunction with the 60th anniversary of CMC by recognizing people who have made significant contributions to society during the past several decades.