Opened the gates to the Beats - NY Times
Born March 24, 1919, Bronxville, New YorkLarry, as his friends called him, was a friend to all, to the SF Zen Center, and to many who passed through. He came to Tassajara during our first guest season. From Tassajara Stories: Alan Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Daniel Moore came in. They meditated in the zendo, walked to the narrows, and in the evening, read their poetry, sang, and chanted mantras with students joining in. Ginsberg played his harmonium with Ferlinghetti and Moore on Chinese horn and Hindu bells. He was always open to whatever I wanted to show him. He carried my books and would even come out to the car to listen to a tape of a song fresh from the studio. He'd occasionally go to Green Gulch, maybe walking up from the beach, and hang out in the meditation circle. I'd read his Coney Island of the Mind before coming to San Francisco and heard about him and his City Lights Books in San Miguel de Allende in 1965 from a long hair fellow who said you could hang out and read and that they even let him walk out with some books without paying. He was older than almost all the poets and writers whom he promoted. Who among them did he not outlive? Farewell Larry. Thanks for all!
