City Lights Bookstore: A beacon for 70 years

City Lights Bookstore has served as a nationally influential gathering place for literature culture since it opened at 261 Columbus Ave. in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood in 1953. Here is a timeline of the store’s history.

THE BIRTH OF CITY LIGHTS MAGAZINE

San Francisco State College (now University) sociolo1952:gy

teacher Peter D. Martin launches City Lights magazine, publishing work by the likes of film critic Pauline Kael as well as poets Robert Duncan and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI AND PETER D. MARTIN BEGIN PARTNERSHIP

1953:Artigues

Ferlinghetti spots Martin as he’s walking past the

Building at 261 Columbus Ave. Martin is hanging a sign that reads: Pocket Book Shop. Ferlinghetti introduces himself as a contributor to City Lights magazine and soon he and Martin agree to a partnership. They each invest $500 to open the bookstore.

They hire Shigeyoshi “Shig” Murao as a clerk. 1955:Martin

sells his share of City Lights Bookstore to Ferlinghetti for $1,000 and moves to New York.

MARTIN SELLS HIS SHARE CITY LIGHTS’ FERLINGHETTI RECOGNIZES GREATNESS IN ‘HOWL’

1955:poem

Beat Generation writer Allen Ginsberg reads his epic

“Howl” at the Six Gallery at 3119 Fillmore St. Ferlinghetti is present and offers to publish “Howl” along with Ginsberg’s shorter poems. Aware of the poem’s references to drug use and homosexuality, Ferlinghetti reaches out to the American Civil Liberties Union and receives assurance they will take the case should Ferlinghetti be prosecuted for publishing obscenity.

Joe Rosenthal/The Chronicle Allen Ginsberg with an array of books, including Jack Kerouac’s “Doctor Sax” and his own poetry collection, “Howl,” in 1959.