Lawrence M. Ferlinghetti (born March 24, 1919), is an American poet, painter, activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers located in San Francisco, California. Ferlinghetti has authored numerous books of poetry, including his best known work, A Coney Island of the Mind (1958), a collection of poems that's been translated into nine languages, with sales of more than one million copies.

City Lights Bookstore — at Broadway & Columbus, San Francisco.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, born March 24, 1919 in Yonkers, New York, opened City Lights Bookstore in 1953. City Lights Press was the first to publish Allen Ginsberg's Howl (1956), resulting in Ferlinghetti standing trial on obscenity charges. After a lengthy trial Ferlinghetti was acquitted, paving the way for publication of other controversial but important works of literature. The poetry room at City Lights Bookstore.