City Lights Bookstore and the 'Howl' obscenity trial

City Lights Bookstore and publishing house was founded by Lawrence Ferlinghetti in 1953 at 261 Columbus Ave and became a focal point of the Beat movement. City Lights' Pocket Poets Series published Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl,' which led to a 1957 obscenity trial that became a landmark First Amendment case for literary expression. The bookstore continues to operate at that address and is an important site in the history of American literature.