Poet whose outlook spanned anarchism, ecology and small business, as founder of the City Lights Bookstore in San FranciscoLawrence Ferlinghetti, poet, artist, activist and founder of San Francisco’s famous City Lights Bookstore, who has died aged 101 of interstitial lung disease, was the least “beat” of the Beat Generation. In addition to a political commitment that blended anarchism and ecology – he loathed the motor car, calling it “the infernal combustion engine” – he had an instinctive business sense, founded on the philosophy of small is beautiful. City Lights, which he started in partnership with the magazine editor Peter Martin in the early 1950s, is still among the most welcoming of shops, with its tables and chairs, sheaves of magazines, and signs saying: “Pick a book, sit down, and read.”Ferlinghetti discouraged interviewers and seekers of personal information. “If I had some biographical questionnaire to answer, I would always make something up,” he once said. Different reference books give different dates of birth, and one published story had it that he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the place of the pissoir in French literature. For many years, he listed his dog, Homer, as City Lights’ publicity and public relations officer. The poet recalled that Homer Ferlinghetti received regular mail, but that his public relations career stalled when he peed against a policeman’s leg. For this act of citizenship, he was immortalised by his master in the poem Dog.... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2021-02-23 22:42:13 UTC ]
In this week’s episode of A Phone Call From Paul, Paul Holdengraber and John Waters discuss his new memoir, Mr. Know-It-All (or as he describes, a “self-help book for lunatics,” what he’s reading this summer, and his experience working for Mary Oliver at her bookstore in Provincetown. From the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-07-18 08:48:16 UTC ]
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Powell’s employees were among a group on Monday night that protested a reading at the bookstore by Blake Nelson, a Portland author whose recent work and public statements have drawn on extremist right-wing rhetoric. Nelson’s newest book, The Red Pill—published by Bombardier Books in... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-07-17 18:00:11 UTC ]
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The Tokyo-based bookstore chain is announcing a second venue in the United Arab Emirates, the Dubai store having opened in 2008. The post Japan’s Kinokuniya Announces 33rd Overseas Bookstore in Abu Dhabi appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2019-07-16 05:30:52 UTC ]
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Semicolon—a vibrant new bookstore, community space, and gallery for Chicago’s street art scene—opened its doors on Tuesday with a party and mural unveiling. The store is just one of a handful of woman-owned bookstores in Chicago and its only bookstore owned by a black woman. An author... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-07-12 15:33:15 UTC ]
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In a popular trope present most often in YA novels, a character finds a secret key to another world. The key is rarely literal. More often, it’s an action as banal and everyday as leaning against a train platform barrier, walking into a phone booth, or looking for a winter coat in the back of... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-12 11:02:44 UTC ]
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For years, I had been hearing about a secret bookstore on the Upper East Side, run by the owner out of his apartment. I thought that you could show up only in the company of a regular attendee. (I would later learn that this was not true, that Michael was, as he liked to say […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-07-09 20:01:37 UTC ]
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Awesome daily roundup of the most interesting bookish links from around the web. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-07-09 10:30:07 UTC ]
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Michael Seidenberg, the beloved owner of New York City's Brazenhead Books, has died. In his later years, Seidenberg ran the bookstore out of his apartment, attracting the city's literati and bookworms. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-07-09 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Since its launch 25 years ago, Amazon's reach has extended well beyond an online bookstore. And while it may seem obvious today, at the time Jeff Bezos was working to get his idea to the masses, many investors thought it would be no match for bookstore giants like Borders and Barnes &... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2019-07-08 11:14:14 UTC ]
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Since its launch 25 years ago, Amazon's reach has extended well beyond an online bookstore. And while it may seem obvious today, at the time Jeff Bezos was working to get his idea to the masses, many investors thought it would be no match for bookstore giants like Borders and Barnes and... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2019-07-08 10:53:45 UTC ]
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Since its launch 25 years ago, Amazon's reach has extended well beyond an online bookstore. And while it may seem obvious today, at the time Jeff Bezos was working to get his idea to the masses, many investors thought it would be no match for bookstore giants like Borders and Barnes and... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2019-07-08 10:00:00 UTC ]
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EVERY YEAR, IT SEEMS, we receive a new diagnosis regarding the viability of books in the digital age: print is dead, print is back, the bookstore is dead, bookstores are back. The nostalgia for and anxiety about print is often reactive, hinting at other anxieties about feeling lonely and... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-07-06 19:00:22 UTC ]
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Since its launch 25 years ago, Amazon's reach has extended well beyond an online bookstore. And while it may seem obvious today, at the time Jeff Bezos was working to get his idea to the masses, many investors thought it would be no match for bookstore giants like Borders and Barnes and... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2019-07-05 17:38:09 UTC ]
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A Rioter not only got to visit the romance bookstore of her dreams, L.A.'s The Ripped Bodice, but also got a slew of recommendations from a co-owner! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-07-02 10:36:13 UTC ]
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A Wisconsin indie has launched a fundraising campaign to benefit for RAICES, an organization that aids immigrants detained at the U.S. border. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-07-01 04:00:00 UTC ]
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What to do while you wait for Netflix’s Sarah Dessen Adaptations: Obviously, get thee to a bookstore and read her ... Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-06-29 10:31:00 UTC ]
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Book Culture, based in the same Queens neighborhood where Amazon wanted to set up shop, says it will be forced to close if the city or state doesn’t offer assistance. In New York City’s Long Island City neighborhood, down the road from where Amazon tried (and failed) to build a “second... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2019-06-26 15:56:45 UTC ]
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Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election has become something of a publishing phenomenon, with several book versions of the report flying off bookstore shelves. Now a San Diego publisher is planning to release a version of... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-06-24 19:00:00 UTC ]
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Popular novels, technical tomes and self-published books are pirated and sold on Amazon. That may actually be helping the company extend its grip on the book business. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-06-23 21:06:40 UTC ]
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No stranger to the unconventional, REI is at it again: The outdoors retailer is discontinuing its print mail-order catalog and debuting a magazine. Called Uncommon Path, the print publication will run on a quarterly basis and include stories focused on the outdoors. Kent, Washington-based REI... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-06-20 19:50:29 UTC ]
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