That was very nice, but you skipped the back story on Mr. Ferlinghetti. After he graduated from UNC, he worked as a journalist. During WWII, as a USN officer he commanded a sub chaser on D-Day, and visited Nagasaki 6 weeks after the atomic bombing. After the war he got his MA at Columbia with a thesis on John Ruskin and painter JMW Turner, and then his PhD at the University of Paris. His dissertation was on Paris as a symbol of modern poetry. Ultimately he became a successful businessman by opening City Lights.

People with that level of education and life experiences seem to be pretty rare today. They didn't call them the greatest generation for nothing.