Which San Francisco bookstore did Lawrence Ferlinghetti open in 1953?

Lawrence Ferlinghetti opened City Lights bookstore in San Francisco in 1953.

City Lights began as a bookstore specializing in paperback literature and soon became an important center for poetry, literary discussion, and political debate. Ferlinghetti co-founded it with Peter D. Martin in the North Beach neighborhood, an area already associated with artists and bohemian culture.

The store later became famous for its City Lights Pocket Poets Series. Its second volume was Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems, published in 1956. That publication led to an obscenity trial after U.S. customs officials seized copies, and Ferlinghetti was ultimately acquitted in a landmark free-expression case.

City Lights remains both a bookstore and an independent publishing house. Although it is strongly associated with the Beat Generation, its catalog expanded far beyond Beat writing to include international literature, politics, philosophy, and contemporary poetry.