Advertisement
Published: September 9th 2014
Edit Blog Post
Perhaps you need to be of a certain age to recognize City Lights Bookstore as the Holy Grail of the free speech movement. Well, at least one of them at any rate. Founded in 1953 by the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti as a literary meeting place, today it offers three floors of books, with lots of chairs scattered around and signs inviting you to sit and read.
City Lights was one of the touchstones of the Beat Generation. These decidedly anti-authoritarian folks were frequently well-educated, often military veterans, left-leaning free speech advocates. Two years after the bookstore opened, Ferlinghetti started City Lights Publishing. Authors such as Charles Bukowski, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and others found a home here.
In 1956, City Lights published the Allen Ginsberg poem “Howl.” It contained the line
“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical, naked,” and it was promptly banned for obscenity. Well! Try telling a guy who served in the Navy during WWII, studied at Columbia University, and believes in free speech that he can’t publish a poem because of the line cited above and you have a fight on your hands. (Of course, the poem
also mentioned illicit drug use, homosexuality, and madness, but I digress.)
In June of 1957, the City Light bookstore manager was arrested on obscenity charges for selling “Howl,” and shortly thereafter Ferlinghetti was jailed for publishing it. The legal case gained national notoriety, and both Time and Life magazines published articles about it. In October of the same year, Judge Clayton Horn ruled that the work has social merit and was therefore not obscene. This decision paved the way for the American publication of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” and “The Tropic of Cancer,” works that had previously been banned in the United States.
I remember buying a copy of “Howl” when I was 16, thinking myself ever so clever and grown-up. I didn't understand it then, not too sure I understand it now, but it is an important bit of American literary history. You may not like the works of these authors, but for the mere fact that you can read them at all you owe Ferlinghetti and City Lights a great debt. I read banned books – and you can, too.
There is an alley that runs behind the bookstore that has been named Jack
Kerouac Way in honor of the author of the classic Beat novel “On the Road.” The alley, short though it is, runs from Grant Avenue, the main street in Chinatown, to Columbus, the beginning of the North Beach neighborhood. You can walk between two very distinct cultures, which is one of the joys of San Francisco. There are several very cool murals painted here, and literary quotes are embedded in the pavement. Note that on the Chinatown side of the alley the quotes are in Chinese, and as you move to the North Beach side the quotes are in English. Cool, eh?
Vesuvio, a bar frequented by Kerouac and other Beat poets is across the alley from City Lights. It’s worth a quick peek just to look at all the photos inside. Oh, and if you want the lunch special, you are advised to bring your own. Across the street is a string of strip clubs that seem to mix easily with the bars and Italian restaurants in the neighborhood.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti is still alive, and at 95, still kicking. He is planning on publishing his travel journals in 2015.
I leave you with one of his
short poems:
“Recipe for Happiness Khabarovsk or Anyplace'
One grand boulevard with trees
with one grand cafe in sun
with strong black coffee in very small cups.
One not necessarily very beautiful
man or woman who loves you.
One fine day.”
― Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Advertisement
Tot: 0.178s; Tpl: 0.021s; cc: 13; qc: 31; dbt: 0.1244s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
SF
Avoiding the tourists spots!