City Lights, 1955. Lawrence Ferlinghetti (on the right, with, from left, Bob Donlin, Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, and Robert LaVigne) recalls, ” When the picture was taken, I was thinking, ‘Are these the best minds of our generation?’ Howl starts with that phrase. I’d say it was a bit of a satirical question. I am the only one in the picture still alive, because I work out all the time. They didn’t work out except raising the elbow or rolling joints. I wasn’t part of the Beat Generation at all. I was really the last bohemian…” NY Times Magazine [Doesn’t it look as if the sign saying “Books” is a thought balloon emanating from LaVigne’s head, by the way? — FmH]