City Lights and the 'Howl' obscenity trial

City Lights Bookstore at 261 Columbus Avenue published Allen Ginsberg’s poem Howl and related works in 1956; proprietor Lawrence Ferlinghetti was prosecuted in People v. Ferlinghetti on obscenity charges in 1957. The San Francisco trial concluded with Judge Clayton W. Horn ruling that Howl was not obscene, a landmark decision cited for First Amendment protections for literary expression. City Lights remains at 261 Columbus Avenue and is historically associated with the Beat movement and the trial.