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Title: Ferlinghetti: Portrait by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Christopher Felver ISBN: 0-87905-851-X Publisher: Gibbs Smith Publisher Pub. Date: 01 September, 1998 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95

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Average Customer Rating: 3 (2 reviews)

Rating: 1
Summary: Old Beat Poets Never Die, They Just Become Very Boring
Comment: In the late 1950s, when Beatnik poets were flaunting their unconventiality by declaring that rhyme, meter, grammar, coherence, and meaning were dispensable in poetry, Lawrence Ferlinghetti was one of the movement's prime exponents-not only as a poet, but also as the proprietor of San Francisco's City Lights Books, a popular hangout for local "nonconformist" writers of the era.

In "this stunning and intimate collection of photographs" (according to the book's jacket), we are afforded a rare glimpse of Ferlinghetti sleeping. . . Ferlinghetti standing in his bookstore. . . Ferlinghetti sitting at his desk. . . Ferlinghetti walking in the woods. . . Ferlinghetti painting a sign outside of his cabin that reads "Temple of the Zen Fool". . . There are no photos from the Beat era, which would have at least been interesting as a historical document. All of the photos in the book are from 1980 to the present.

There is one truly hilarious photo of Ferlinghetti at the easel in his painting studio, with an overweight nude woman posing for him. His painting is so ridiculously crude that you'd wonder why he went through the trouble of having her pose for him. There are numerous photos of Ferlinghetti posing next to his works of "art," which if your five year-old came home with you might hang on the refrigerator for a week, then quietly place in the trash while he's away at school.

The book jacket proclaims that "These photographs underline the poignant friendships with poets and comrades-Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder . . ." In other words, there are photos of Ferlinghetti standing next to those people.

The book contains "his famed poem 'Autobiography,'" a long ramble about the fact that he has done nothing of any importance in his life. As far as mediocrities go, Ferlinghetti is certainly one of the least pretentious.

My favorite photo is toward the end of the book. After suffering through page after page of some of the most ordinary, uninspiring images ever assembled, the viewer is treated to a portrait of this poetic genius, smiling kindly and holding up his middle finger to the viewer.

Well same to you, Ferlinghetti!

Rating: 5
Summary: On same plane as "Picturing Hemingway"'98 ...
Comment: An equal tome--Distinquished with highest profiled clarity..the legacy of Beat Generation preserved, distilled..enhanced for all time,thru portals of..City Lights. world's foremost protagonist of beats..& "the great enabler"for visionary beats... a recommended photo-accompaniment to that other Icon-of-American Letters,Hemingway (100th anniversary celebration ed.)