About a month ago, Dave in Northridge featured City Lights Bookstore in this series in the context of the "Howl" obscenity trail in San Francisco in 1957 & how this well - known trial helped put City Lights Bookstore on the map. So, allow me to feature a clip from the movie Howl as a bit of a refresher. This movie is A MUST VIEW, its dialogue in the trial scenes are straight from the trial transcript, and the trial scenes were filmed IN THE COURTHOUSE where the actual trial was.
However, the beginnings & back story of how City Lights came about in the first place laid the groundwork for City Lights' publishing house to publish Howl & Other Poems & support and publish other 'degenerate art'. If you don't know that, you only know part of the story & will not have as full of an appreciation for the icon that City Lights has become.
City Lights, in the early 50s, was first a literary & popular culture magazine put together by a transplanted New Yorker sociology professor named Peter Martin. Where did the name come from? Well...
In a tangential editorial comment, if you watch the end of City Lights & not get a bit of a lump in your throat, you've got a heart of stone & a soul full of unwashed socks. Now...back to the 'birth' of City Lights as a bookstore.
So, again, we have Peter Martin's magazine which was read by many literary 'bohemian' types in the San Francisco area - including another recent transplant from the east coast & WWII veteran named Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Mr. Ferlinghetti's prior rather conventional political outlook & his entire outlook on life was drastically changed and shaped by his experience in WWII - most importantly his visit to Nagasaki 6 weeks after we dropped "Little Boy" there. From then on, he learned not to trust power in any form - especially in our government...no matter which political party's in charge.
One late summer/early autumn day in 1953, Mr. Ferlinghetti was driving in North Beach & saw Peter Martin put up a sign that said 'pocket book shop' at 261 Columbus Ave. Both of these gentlemen wanted to make books & bookstores accessible to EVERYONE, and the way they thought to do that was to make available high - quality paperback books - including classics & the burgeoning literature being created in the post WWII San Francisco environment heavily influenced by Kenneth Rexroth & his radio program on KPFA. Peter Martin had $500 set back to start this bookstore; Lawrence Ferlinghetti also had $500. So, City Lights Bookstore was begun by 2 gentlemen with $500 each & a handshake. AND, at this bookstore, unlike any other at the time, you didn't have to come in with a bunch of money to buy a big 'ol hardback book; a kid could come in with his/her allowance for the week & buy a book. OR, even if you had no money, you could & still can sit, read, and be left alone with absolutely no pressure to buy.
The publishing wing of City Lights began around 1955; one of Mr. Ferlinghetti's first books of poetry was the first published. Hey, ownership should have SOME advantages. ;D
The 4th volume of the Pocket Poets series published by City Lights was...Howl & Other Poems. See above video for just 1 example of the effect of THAT decision. ;D
By then, Peter Martin had decided he wanted to go back to New York City, so City Lights was all Mr. Ferlinghetti's. He KNEW "Howl" had the potential for trouble & had already lined up lawyers from the ACLU to defend the work if it went to trial. Had the trail gone the other way, his livelihood AND his freedom would've been taken away.
Since the outcome of the trial & to this day, City Lights Bookstore and its foundation take absolutely no government money - not even from the National Endowment for the Arts. Taking money or grants in any form from the government sets an expectation (spoken or otherwise) that an artist fall into line. No letting Lenny Bruce go there to research for HIS trial in San Francisco (aquitted by Judge Clayton Horn - the same judge that cleared "Howl") without letting the authorities know, no meeting space for the Free Speech Movement in Berkley in the late 60s, no trips to Cuba, no trips to Nicaragua, no trips or saying anything without government approval (again spoken or heavily expected).
At ceremonies honoring City Lights on the 50th anniversary of its opening, one of its speakers called City Lights
the address of the First Amendment.
By the way, just in September, City Lights Bookstore celebrated its 60TH ANNIVERSARY! :D
All of the literature published by City Lights, the poetry that Mr. Ferlinghetti continues to write, and the efforts of the City Lights Foundation seek to hold onto that precious unique creative subjective Charlie Chaplin in us all in the face of an increasing impersonal mechanized conformist world. Mr. Ferlinghetti's most recent collection from just the end of the year last year, Time of Useful Consciousness, warns us - begs us - to not let that part of us go.
From Mr. Ferlinghetti's own description on the back cover
'Time of Useful Consciousness' is an aeronautical term denoting the time between when one loses oxygen and when one passes out, the brief time in which some lifesaving action is possible.
Finally, like you REALLY THOUGHT you'd not see THIS particular image again?! :D
Readers & Book Lovers Series Schedule:
From the Curator: With this wonderful diary, the cycle of All Things Bookstore reverts to a "sometimes" series, as my workload won't let me be attentive to it until mid-December. Thanks for reading, and thank you for the support you've given to the issues raised by the bookstore in modern America.
