Standing On The Right Side Of History: Lawrence Ferlingetti And City Lights Books

A prominent voice of the wide-open poetry movement that began in the 1950s, Lawrence Ferlinghetti (image, above, 1959) has written poetry, translations, fiction, theater, art criticism, film narration, and essays. An accomplished painter, his paintings have been shown at galleries around the world.

Founded in San Francisco in 1953 by Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin (who left two years later), City Lights, named after the 1931 Charlie Chaplain film, is one of the truly great independent bookstores in the United States. Originally a little one-room, pie-shaped bookstore. Martin and Ferlinghetti began by selling new quality paperbacks and early alternative newspapers and magazines. Out front on the sidewalk there were used books in Parisian-style book-racks with lids that could be closed at night (like quayside kiosks in Paris). They had started the store with $500 each, and never dreamed they would take in as much as $50 a day selling paperbacks

Although it has been more than fifty years since tour buses with passengers eager to sight “beatniks” began pulling up in front of City Lights, the Beats’ legacy of anti-authoritarian politics and insurgent thinking continues to be a strong influence in the store, most evident in the selection of titles.

The nation’s first all-paperback bookstore, City Lights Booksellers has expanded several times. The store features an extensive and in-depth selection of poetry, fiction, translations, politics, history, philosophy, music and spirituality along with other titles and a staff whose special book interests in many fields contribute to the hand-picked quality on the shelves. The bookstore has served for half a century as a meeting place for writers, artists, and intellectuals.

Two years after its founding, Ferlinghetti started City Lights Publishers. With nearly 200 books in print, it is renown for cutting-edge fiction, poetry, memoirs, literary translations and books on vital social and political issues.

City Lights Publishers began with the Pocket Poets Series, through which Ferlinghetti aimed to create an “international, dissident ferment.” His publication of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl And Other Poems in 1956 led to his arrest on obscenity charges; the trial that followed drew national attention to the San Francisco Renaissance and Beat movement writers. (He was overwhelmingly supported by prestigious literary and academic figures, and was acquitted.) This landmark First Amendment case established a legal precedent for the publication of controversial work with redeeming social importance.

San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown appointed him Poet laureate in 1998. ”In Plato’s republic, poets were considered subversive, a danger to the republic,” Ferlinghetti said, standing beside the Mayor. ”I kind of relish that role. So I see my present role as a gadfly, to use as a soapbox to promote my various ideas and obsessions.” In 2003 he was awarded the Robert Frost Memorial Medal, the Author’s Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, and he was elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Among the titles City Lights has issued recently are I Must Resist and Robert Duncan in San Francisco. Published on the centennial of his birth, and in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the historic March on Washington, I Must Resist was edited by Michael G Long.

Here is Rustin in his own words in a collection of over 150 of his letters; his correspondents include the major progressives of his day — for example, Eleanor Holmes Norton, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, Ella Baker, and of course, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Bayard Rustin, called the “lost prophet” of the civil rights movement, is best remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. He brought Gandhi’s protest techniques to the American civil rights movement and played a deeply influential role in the life of Martin Luther King.  He was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, imprisoned and fired from important leadership positions, largely because he was an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era.

READ: Bayard Rustin, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Gay Strategist, Deserves Better

A newly expanded edition of the classic, Robert Duncan in San Francisco by Michael Rumaker is both a portrait of the premier poet of the SF Renaissance and a fascinating account of gay life in late 1950s America:

Following his graduation from Black Mountain College, Rumaker made his way to the post-Howl, pre-Stonewall gay literary milieu of San Francisco. It was an era of police persecution of a largely clandestine gay community struggling to survive in the otherwise “open city” of San Francisco.

And just released, The End of San Francisco, according to City Lights’ website, “breaks apart the conventions of memoir to reveal the passions and perils of a life that refuses to conform to the rules of straight or gay normalcy. A budding queer activist escapes to San Francisco, in search of a world more politically charged, sexually saturated, and ethically consistent—this is the person who evolves into the author, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, infamous radical queer troublemaker, organizer and agitator, community builder, and anti-assimilationist commentator.  Part memoir, part social history, and part elegy, The End of San Francisco explores and explodes the dream of a radical queer community and the mythical city that was supposed to nurture it.”

READ: ‘The End of San Francisco’ Author Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore In Seattle Tonight

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore’s reads from her book in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley, Olympia and Seattle in April, May and June.

City Lights continues to be a mecca for intellectuals in San Francisco. The ongoing series of readings and events, usually at least one or two each week, are almost always free.

In 2001, City Lights was made an official historic landmark – a singular honor for a business.

With this bookstore-publisher combination, “it is as if,” says Ferlinghetti, “the public were being invited, in person and in books, to participate in that ‘great conversation’ between authors of all ages, ancient and modern.” City Lights has become world-famous, but it has retained an intimate, casual charm. It’s a completely unique San Francisco experience, and a must for anyone who appreciates good books.

City Lights Bookstore celebrates its 60th anniversary on Sunday, June 23rd,  2013 with a birthday party open house at the bookstore — mark your calendars now, and start planning your trip to San Francisco!

In addition to the Anniversary Open House in June,  in July, they’ll partner with the Contemporary Jewish Museum — host to a traveling exhibit of Allen Ginsberg’s photographs — for an event about the continued struggle against forces of conservatism and censorship, focusing on Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s successful defense of Allen Ginsberg’s HOWL And Other Poems.

Also in July, San Francisco Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguia will host a gathering of writers in Jack Kerouac Alley, next to the bookstore.  In August, some of the fine contemporary poets in the new City Lights Spotlight Series come together for a group reading to celebrate the series, while in September the current and past poet laureates of San Francisco read and celebrate City Lights’ Poet Laureate Series at the new SF Jazz Center.

November will be the time to focus on Surrealism with an evening that will include surrealist games and activities. In addition, they are sponsoring a series of Sunday afternoon happenings all summer long, casual literary readings and musical entertainment outdoors in Jack Kerouac Alley, next to the bookstore.

If you can’t make it in person, you can join in the celebration online. Throughout the year they’’ll be featuring historical photos, stories, reminiscences and more on  on the City Lights Blog. Follow them on Facebook, Pinterest, and check out their Twitter feed, for up-to-the-minute news on events and postings.

 

Lawrence Ferlinghetti in Front of City Lights, 2013

Lawrence Ferlinghetti and City Lights standing firmly on the Right Side of History since 1953.

All images courtesy of City Lights

City Lights Bookstore is located at 261 Columbus Avenue at Broadway, San Francisco, CA 94133
phone: (415) 362-8193  Open daily 10 am to midnight.

 

Stuart Wilber believes that living life openly as a Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Allied person is the most powerful kind of activism. Shortly after meeting his husband in Chicago in 1977, he opened a gallery named In a Plain Brown Wrapper, where he exhibited cutting edge work by leading artists; art that dealt with sexuality and gender identification.  (Photo by Mathew Ryan Williams)