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Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the Beat poet, publisher and founder of San Francisco's beloved City Lights bookstore, has died aged 101, CNN reports. He passed away from lung disease on Monday evening, confirmed the store's vice president and director of marketing and publicity, Stacey Lewis.

One of the last surviving members of the Beat Generation, Ferlinghetti played a key role in expanding the literary movement's focus to the West Coast. An online tribute, posted to City Lights' website on Tuesday, said that Ferlinghetti had been "instrumental in democratizing American literature." "For over 60 years, those of us who have worked with him at City Lights have been inspired by his knowledge and love of literature, his courage in defense of the right to freedom of expression, and his vital role as an American cultural ambassador," the post read. "His curiosity was unbounded and his enthusiasm was infectious, and we will miss him greatly." ծ

Born in New York in 1919, he co-founded the City Lights bookstore in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood in 1953. In 1955, he would buy out fellow co-founder Peter D. Martin, and expand the business to include a publishing house of the same name. Launching with the hugely influential Pocket Poets Series, Ferlinghetti went on to publish works by some of the postwar period's most important literary figures, including fellow Beat poets William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac.

But it was a poem by Allen Ginsberg, "Howl," that would further thrust him into the spotlight. He authored more than 30 collections of poetry, tackling themes such as social ills and mass corruption. He continued writing well into his later years, publishing his latest novel "Little Boy" in 2019. Upon his 100th birthday that year, San Francisco made March 24, his birthday, "Lawrence Ferlinghetti Day."