“Reinvent America and the World”: How Lawrence Ferlinghetti and City Lights Books Cultivated an International Literature of Dissent
American poet and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti became a Cold War conduit for the publication and proliferation of postwar avant-garde and dissident poetry. In this essay I tell the story of how Ferlinghetti and his bookstore and press City Lights in San Francisco, California helped popularize int...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
European Association for American Studies
2017-08-01
|
| Series: | European Journal of American Studies |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/12041 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | American poet and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti became a Cold War conduit for the publication and proliferation of postwar avant-garde and dissident poetry. In this essay I tell the story of how Ferlinghetti and his bookstore and press City Lights in San Francisco, California helped popularize international dissident poetry in the United States. This effort, I argue, was contingent upon the relationships Ferlinghetti cultivated with many international poets and translators between 1954-1972. From archival sources such as Ferlinghetti’s personal letters and City Lights Books records, I construct a narrative that reveals the perils and pleasures of translating, editing, and publishing dissident poetry during the Cold War. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1991-9336 |