The world has lost a talented and creative soul this week with the news that poet and countercultural pioneer, Lawrence Ferlinghetti has passed away at age 101.

Ferlinghetti was the owner of San Francisco–based City Lights Books. Both the store and Ferlinghetti’s work as a poet were huge inspiration for Bob Dylan as a song writer.

Perhaps the most well known representation of Ferlinghetti in Dylan’s music is his collection of poems ‘A Coney Island of the Mind’ released in 1958, which was cited in Bob Dylan’s album, Biograph.

In fact, Dylan isn’t the only famous musician who has drawn inspiration from Ferlinghetti.  The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn, Cyndi Lauper, and the Residents all used work of Ferlinghetti’s in their creations.

The poet sadly passed away at his house on Monday night (American time), February 22, 2021 and his daughter, Julie Sasser, has confirmed that the cause was interstitial lung disease.

Perhaps one of Ferlinghetti’s moves that earned him the most international recognition, was when he published Ginsberg’s controversial poem ‘Howl’, a piece about feeling suppressed by dominant American culture. A move that made both him and Ginsberg very well known.

As expected, copies of the book were seized by police and Ferlinghetti and Ginsberg were arrested on obscenity charges in 1957.

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“I wasn’t worried. I was young and foolish. I figured I’d get a lot of reading done in jail and they wouldn’t keep me in there for ever. And, anyway, it really put the book on the map,” Ferlinghetti told the Guardian about his bold move publishing Howl.

#Ferlinghetti is trending on Twitter as tributes flood in for the literary genius. His iconic book shop, City Lights Books have taken to Twitter to tweet their condolences.

City Lights publisher, Elaine Katzenberger has also made a statement on his passing. “For now, we’re asking folks to remember the huge 100th birthday celebration, which was a fantastic tribute to his life and work,” she said.

The celebration Katzenberger is referring too, is when, to mark a century alive, she led him to his window where a choir was waiting. They sung “Happy Birthday” and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” (“It’s root, root, root for the Giants!”) as he listened on with a huge smile.

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