You Can Now Read “Howl”– Publisher Acquitted of Obscenity Charges
Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Shigeyoshi Murao were acquitted of obscenity charges in San Francisco on this day for having published Allen Ginsberg’s now-famous poem Howl.
The poem is now widely regarded as one of the great American poems, and also the classic statement of the 1950s Beat Generation. Ferlinghetti was the publisher of the poem and also the founder/owner of City Lights Books store, a now famous independent book store in San Francisco. Murao was his assistant. They had been arrested on June 3, 1957 for publishing the poem.
The charges against Murao were dropped early in the case. Ferlinghetti’s attorneys included Jake Ehrlich and Lawrence Speiser, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Northern California. Speiser is notable in legal history as the only attorney to successfully represent himself before the U.S. Supreme Court. The case was Speiser v. Randall, in which the Court overturned a section of the California state constitution which required military veterans to sign a loyalty oath to qualify for a tax exemption.
Ginsburg first read Howl publicly on October 6, 1955. And on March 25, 1957 U.S. Customs seized copies of the poem that had been printed in England and were being imported into the U.S.
The City Lights Bookstore is still selling books in San Francisco, and has been designated a historical landmark in the city. Ferlinghetti, moreover, is himself an acclaimed poet. Although closely associated with the Beat Generation, Ferlinghetti did not consider himself a Beat Generation poet.
Ferlinghetti died on February 22, 2020 at age 101.
Hear Ginsberg reading Howl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVGoY9gom50
Learn more about the great poet: Bill Morgan, I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg (2006)
Visit City Lights Bookstore: http://www.citylights.com/
Read about the case: J. W. Ehrlich, Howl of the Censor (1961)
Read the Ferlinghetti biography: Barry Silesky, Ferlinghetti: The Artist in His Time (1990)
Visit the Beat Museum in San Francisco: http://www.kerouac.com/
See Ferlinghetti with his attorney, Lawrence Speiser of the ACLU of Northern California: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wtafsite/3976576112/