FERLINGHETTI, Lawrence. Pictures of the Gone World.

FERLINGHETTI, Lawrence. Pictures of the Gone World.The founding work of the Pocket Poets FERLINGHETTI, Lawrence. Pictures of the Gone World. San Francisco: City Lights Books. 1955. Small 4to. Black and yellow front and back card wrappers with stapled binding; yellow endpapers; unpaginated; very minimal rubbing to spine and slightly toned cover; otherwise very good condition. Fourth printing, with a loosely inserted letter, dated 2005, from Ferlinghetti to Ralph Sipper, book critic and rare book

The founding work of the Pocket Poets

FERLINGHETTI, Lawrence. Pictures of the Gone World. San Francisco: City Lights Books. 1955.

Small 4to. Black and yellow front and back card wrappers with stapled binding; yellow endpapers; unpaginated; very minimal rubbing to spine and slightly toned cover; otherwise very good condition.

Fourth printing, with a loosely inserted letter, dated 2005, from Ferlinghetti to Ralph Sipper, book critic and rare book seller, in which he reflects on the impact of the Pocket Poets Series: "'Gone World' has been in print for 50 years! It's still good reading for fun and deep thoughts - the world being more gone than ever".

“Every great poem fulfils a longing and puts life back together”, wrote Ferlinghetti after being awarded the Poetry Society of America’s Frost Medal in 2003.

Pictures of the Gone World was the first volume in Ferlinghetti's classic City Lights Pocket Poets Series which famously championed a generation of voices from provocative young writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Malcolm Lowry. In 1956, Ferlinghetti was responsible for the publication of Allen Ginsberg's iconic poem "Howl", which led to him being arrested for accusations of printing "indecent writings". He was acquitted and subsequently the poem became one of the most controversial and better-known poems of the twentieth century but Ferlinghetti was also a subversive writer in his own right.

Despite his intimate affiliation with the Beat poets, he rejected this more obvious label and instead considered himself to be the "last of the bohemians". Throughout his career, Ferlinghetti was persistent in his political agitation and challenging of the status quo, believing that art should be universally accessible rather than reserved for the privilege of academia. His poetry, and his Pocket Poet Series, sought to enable this insurgence and his personal, experimental work continually defies conservative political movements. In Western American Literature, John Trimbur noted that Ferlinghetti writes a “public poetry to challenge the guardians of the political and social status quo for the souls of his fellow citizens".

He died in 2021, at the age of 101. In his obituary, the New York Times christened him "the spiritual godfather" of the Beat Generation.

SKU: 2120382