Lawrence Ferlinghetti, City Lights founder and champion of the Beat Generation, dead at 101

Lawrence Ferlinghetti (left) and Allen Ginsberg
(Image credit: M. Stroud/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the "legend of American letters" who founded San Francisco's famed City Lights bookstore, died Monday at the age of 101. His daughter told The New York Times that his cause of death was interstitial lung disease.

Ferlinghetti left an indelible mark on modern American literature through his championing of the Beat Generation in the 1950s and early 1960s, including when he famously published Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" in 1956 — a decision that resulted in a widely-publicized obscenity trial, in which Ferlinghetti was ultimately acquitted.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.