From the groundbreaking "A Coney Island of the Mind" in 1958 to the personal epic of "Americus, Book I" in 2003, Ferlinghetti has been the poetic conscience of America. In this work, he offers--in prose--what poetry is, could be, and should be.
In 1953 Lawrence Ferlinghetti founded the first paperback bookstore in the United States. In over five decades City Lights, the bookstore and publisher, has become a Mecca for millions. Ferlinghetti's A Coney Island of the Mind (ND, 1958) is a number one best-selling volume of poetry by any living American poet.