In 1953 Lawrence Ferlinghetti cofounded City Lights, the first paperback bookstore in the United States, a Mecca for millions. His Coney Island of the Mind is one of the best-selling volumes of poetry by any living American poet. Born in Yonkers, New York, in 1919, Ferlinghetti has received the Robert Frost Memorial Medal and the first Literarian Award of the National Book Foundation.

A reissue of Ferlinghetti's very short experimental plays (1965) with three new plays added to the original thirteen. In this collection Ferlinghetti takes a revolutionary look at modern theater and explores the area between old-style drama and spontaneous improvisation by supplying a blueprint for dramatic actionan outline from which director and actors may create and interpret freely. In one called '"Our Little Trip" two men in conservative suits wind themselves in and out of a long bandage while a questioner circles them seeking Meaning. "Servants of the People" puts on political podium hogs in torrents of cliches. "Bearded Lady 'Dies'" features the Second Coming all decked out for newspaper coverage.