Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the poet whose San Francisco–based City Lights bookstore and publishing house served as a springboard for the Beat generation, has died. His daughter, Julie Sasser, reported his cause of death as interstitial lung disease, according to The New York Times. He was 101.

The poet was known for stacking small fractured lines on top of each other in unique geometric shapes like Jenga towers, with each thought supporting the ones above it. His best-known collection of poems, 1958’s A Coney Island of the Mind, presented vivid images in the language of his day,...