Beat poet and author of Coney Island of the Mind, one of the best-selling poetry books of all time, Lawrence Ferlinghetti is the subject of this insightful and stunning collection of photographs taken by Chris Felver. Some of the best-loved poems, including a never-before-published poem, of Ferlinghetti are blended with this photographic portrait, revealing Lawrence to his readers with Allen Ginsberg, Diane di Prima, Gary Snyder, Gregory Corso, William S. Burroughs, or by himself sailing his boat, painting, camping, even writing a new poem -- an intimate look at one of America's most-revered poets.

From the famed publisher and poet, author of the million-copy-selling collection A Coney Island of the Mind, his literary last will and testament -- part autobiography, part summing up, part Beat-inflected torrent of language and feeling, and all magical. "A volcanic explosion of personal memories, political rants, social commentary, environmental jeremiads and cultural analysis all tangled together in one breathless sentence that would make James Joyce proud. . ." —Ron Charles, The Washington Post In this unapologetically unclassifiable work Lawrence Ferlinghetti lets loose an exhilarating rush of language to craft what might be termed a closing statement about his highly significant and productive 99 years on this planet. The "Little Boy" of the title is Ferlinghetti himself as a child, shuffled from his overburdened mother to his French aunt to foster childhood with a rich Bronxville family. Service in World War Two (including the D-Day landing), graduate work, and a scholar gypsy's vagabond life in Paris followed. These biographical reminiscences are interweaved with Allen Ginsberg-esque high energy bursts of raw emotion, rumination, reflection, reminiscence and prognostication on what we may face as a species on Planet Earth in the future. Little Boy is a magical font of literary lore with allusions galore, a final repository of hard-earned and durable wisdom, a compositional high wire act without a net (or all that much punctuation) and just a gas and an inspiration to read.

"A surreal semi-autobiographical blackbook record of a semi-mad period of my life, in that mindless, timeless state most romantics pass through, confusing flesh madonnas with spiritual ones." This is how the author describes this extraordinary expatriate novel.

Twenty-nine poems from the 1950's.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s name does not appear in any First Amendment treatise or casebook. And yet when the best-selling poet and proprietor of City Lights Books was indicted under California law for publishing and selling Allen Ginsberg’s poem, Howl, Ferglinghetti buttressed the tradition of dissident expression and ended an era when minds were still closed, candid literature still taboo, and when selling banned books was considered a crime. The People v. Ferlinghetti is the story of a rebellious poet, a revolutionary poem, an intrepid book publisher, and a bookseller unintimidated by federal or local officials. There is much color in that story: the bizarre twists of the trial, the swagger of the lead lawyer, the savvy of the young ACLU lawyer, and the surprise verdict of the Sunday school teacher who presided as judge. With a novelist’s flair, noted free speech authorities, Ronald K. L. Collins and David Skover tell the true story of an American maverick who refused to play it safe and who in the process gave staying power to freedom of the press in America. The People v. Ferlinghetti will be of interest to anyone interested the history of free speech in America and the history of the Beat poets.

Poems about the City by the Bay by its first official Poet Laureate.

Ekphrasis, the description of pictorial art in words, is the subject of this bibliography. More specifically, some 2500 poems on paintings are catalogued, by type of publication in which they appear and by poet. Also included are 2000 entries on the secondary literature of ekphrasis, including works on sculpture, music, photography, film, and mixed media.

Ferlinghetti has been telling the truth in poems for more than four decades, and every indication is that he will continue to be heard when all the pretenders have turned to witless stone. Certainly the more than 50 pages of new work included here with his own selections of earlier work continue to maintain the faith. Published by New Directions, 80 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10011. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The sequel to Ferlinghetti's "A Coney Island of the Mind", this sequence of 100 poems with recurrent themes includes various sections on love, art, music, history, and literature, as well as confrontations with major figures in the avant-garde before the arrival of the Beat generation.

The Secret Meaning of Things is Lawrence Ferlinghetti's fourth book of poems.