Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a major 20th-century American poet but also bookseller and publisher, died Monday at the age of 101 in his San Francisco home, his bookstore announced.
"He continued to write and publish new books until he was 100 years old, and his work secures him a place in American canon
,
"
the legendary City Lights Booksellers and Publishers greeted in a statement Tuesday. , which he co-founded in San Francisco in 1953.
Read also: Ferlinghetti, the voice of the other America
Born in New York in 1919, this man of letters had a central role in the establishment of the American counter-culture of the 1950s, by founding his bookstore but also by editing Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso, William S. Burroughs or Allen Ginsberg.
He was arrested in 1957 and tried for obscenity in a historic trial (before being finally acquitted), for having edited one of the great books of the Beat Generation, "Howl", Ginsberg's long hallucinated poem.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti had also written a collection of poetry, which sold over a million copies, "A Coney Island of the Mind" (1958, later published in France under the original title).
In its press release, the bookstore praises
"his knowledge and love for literature, his courage in defending the right to freedom of expression, and his vital role as ambassador of American culture."
Lawrence Ferlinghetti died of interstitial lung disease, according to his children cited by American newspapers.