NEW YORK (AP) – Lawrence Ferlinghetti, one of the last links to the early days of the Beat poetry movement, never doubted the artistry of Bob Dylan or his worthiness of the Nobel prize.
“Bravo for Dylan, Nobel Laureate!” Ferlinghetti told The Associated Press in an email Friday. Dylan was close to Allen Ginsberg and other Beats and Ferlinghetti told the AP that decades ago he had hoped the singer-songwriter would release his material in print form through the publishing arm of Ferlinghetti’s celebrated City Lights bookstore in San Francisco. Alas, Ferlinghetti said, “he became famous” and lived on as a “song and dance man.”
Ferlinghetti, 97, has published works by Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac among others and was a defendant in a landmark obscenity trail over his release of Ginsberg’s classic poem “Howl.”