It was May, 1994, at the Beat Generation Conference at New York University, when most of real beat poets and musicians of the 1940s and 50s gathered together for the last time. Of the ones I didn’t already know, I met the rest of them at that amazing, unforgettable conference that ran for several days. At a private dinner at the close of the gathering, I was seated next to Lawrence Ferlinghetti. It was the first time that I met him. He was an incredibly charming man. His openness and engaging manner won everyone at our table over quickly. You could ask him anything and I did. He told us about City Lights Books, the famous trial over Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and writing “A Coney Island of the Mind” in 1958. At the time, Ferlinghetti was 75 years old. His passion at that moment in his life was painting. He showed me examples of his work and gave me some cards of his paintings. It is important to know that even though Ferlinghetti is considered by most a “beat” writer, he does not consider himself one. He refers to himself as a bohemian from an earlier generation. He did, however, have a close association with the beat writers and published many of them. That sometimes made him a character in their work. For example, in Jack Kerouac’s “Big Sur,” it was Ferlinghetti’s Big Sur cabin that was used and he was written into the book as “Lorenzo Monsanto.” And, of course, Ferlinghetti published many of the beat writers, including Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William S. Burroughs, Diane diPrima, Michael McClure, Philip Lamantia, Bob Kaufman and Gary Snyder. In my book, whether an official beat or not, Ferlinghetti was a major contributor to making the beat movement possible. And he outlived most of them. Happy 95th birthday, Lawrence Ferlinghetti! Photo at the conference in 1994 by Frank Beacham
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 12:00:26 +0000
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