Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Businessman
San Francisco 1965
I followed Lawrence around his bookstore, City Lights, one day, noting his attention to detail. He did everything in the bookshop, no job too big or too small. I asked him how he handled being a Beat poet and bookstore owner. He told me that when he comes to work at the store he is all business. Besides, he never considered himself a Beat poet but rather a painter. I am still knocked out by this news because he has the best selling poetry book in the world with his book, A Coney Island of the Mind.