Ferlinghetti chased Subs

Here is a great story about Ferlinghetti's time in WWII as a sub chaser I remember reading about how he came ashore in France, made his way to a cafe and found a poem written on the table cloth by Jacques Prevert. Ferlinghetti later went on to translate his work including Song in the Blood I had a chance a few years ago to ask Ferlinghetti about the similarities between Song in the Blood and Howl as far as the use of repetition and if Ginsberg had been aware of the poem. He was sure that he had not read it at the time of writing Howl. With the new "street view" feature on Google maps if you type in 1010 Montgomery Street you can see the apartment where Ginsberg wrote Howl. Here is a beat walking tour provided by Hotel Boheme