Lawrence Ferlinghetti, American poet, activist and publisher, 101. Born in New York City in 1919, he served in WWII, including working in Japan in the aftermath of the Nagasaki atomic bombing, which helped to lead him to a lifetime of pacifist belief. He moved to San Francisco in 1951 where he lived for the rest of his life. His best known writing is probably his first poetry collection,
A Coney Island of the Mind, but many of the works he published far outstripped his personal fame, notably Allen Ginsberg's
Howl, which led to a celebrated obscenity case tried before the Supreme Court. It was published by his bookstore and press, City Lights, which may well be his greatest legacy.
