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"I love your wide-open poetry."––Pablo Neruda to Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Just in time for his 99th birthday, New Directions is proud to present a swift, terrific chronological selection of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's greatest poems. Through this tight lens, it is now possible to see Ferlinghetti—a brilliant and prolific poet—in a richer, broader, and more complex way. From his very first landmark books—Pictures of the Gone World (City Lights, 1955) and A Coney Island of the Mind (New Directions, 1958)—to new work, Ferlinghetti’s Greatest Poems displays every stage of this multifaceted writer’s long and celebrated career. It’s exciting to revisit in one slender volume so much of the splendid, playful, and trenchant work of one of America’s greatest and most popular poets.

"A brave man and a brave poet."––Bob Dylan

"A national treasure––the foremost chronicler of our times, continually in the front lines."––Library Journal

"Lawrence gets you laughing and then hits you with the truth."––Francis Ford Coppola