A Publisher and Poet Who Produces Reading for the Masses

Recognizing Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s commitments and contributions on his 101st birthday

Bidwell Hollow © 2020

While studying at the Sorbonne in Paris in the early 1950s, Lawrence Ferlinghetti read a series of small, paperback books. Known as Poètes d’aujourd’ hui, the books made more accessible to the public the work of writers from Jean Cocteau to Walt Whitman. It’s a publishing model that Ferlinghetti decided to try in the U.S., with a twist.

Ferlinghetti wanted to bust book publishing out of its arrogance, to make poetry and literature affordable and available to the masses. And Ferlinghetti aspired to publish books that aligned with his left-leaning, anti-war beliefs.

Ferlinghetti met Peter Martin after moving to San Francisco in 1951. Martin published a magazine that Ferlinghetti enjoyed, called City Lights. Martin supported Ferlinghetti’s vision of publishing paperback books.

Few American publishers in the 1950s made money in paperbacks, though. Everything was hardcover. So to finance their publishing endeavors, Ferlinghetti and Martin decided to open a bookstore.

But even this decision bucked convention. The shop, City Lights Pocket Book Shop, was the first bookstore in the country to only sell paperback books. “We were young and foolish,” Ferlinghetti said. “And we had no money.”

“We were young and foolish. And we had no money.”

The shop opened in 1953. And in 1955, City Lights Books published its first work in its Pocket Poet Series. The book was a poetry collection by Ferlinghetti titled, Pictures of the Gone World.

Shortly after that, a man named Allen Ginsberg walked into the bookstore with poems he thought would make a good book for the Pocket Poet Series. But Ferlinghetti declined. Ginsberg returned a few months later with a new manuscript. This time, Ferlinghetti liked what he saw. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the funds to publish another book.

Ginsberg kept working on his piece, “Howl,” which he read at the Six Gallery on Oct. 7, 1955. Ferlinghetti was in the audience. Ginsberg first published “Howl” in England, but U.S. Customs officials seized the book when it arrived in the U.S. Authorities claimed the book was too obscene for distribution.

By then, Ferlinghetti could afford to publish “Howl.” He did so as Howl and Other Poems in 1956. On June 3, 1957, the San Francisco Police Department arrested Ferlinghetti for violating obscenity laws. A trial ensued, and Magistrate Judge Clayton W. Horn ruled that the book wasn’t obscene.

The trial made Ginsberg, his fellow Beat writers, and Ferlinghetti famous. There are more than 1 million copies of Howl in print. And Ferlinghetti’s shop, now called City Lights Bookstore, is a literary mecca for many who come to San Francisco.

Ferlinghetti’s advocated for his views in publishing and as an artist. “In Plato’s Republic, poets were considered subversive, a danger to the republic,” he said. “I kind of relish that role.”

Ferlinghetti discussed politics even in writing about undergarments. These lines are from his poem, “Underwear:”

America in its Underwear

struggles thru the night

Underwear controls everything in the end

Take foundation garments for instance

They are really fascist forms

of underground government

making people believe

something but the truth

telling you what you can or can’t do

Ferlinghetti’s books include his poetry collection, A Coney Island of the Mind, and the autobiographical novel Little Boy. The latter book came out last year, a few weeks before Ferlinghetti turned 100. The author, poet, publisher, and bookstore owner turns 101 on March 24, 2020.