It’s one of the top destinations to visit on any trip to San Francisco and we couldn’t agree more. Whether you’re just looking for your next great book to read or love literary, cultural, or Beat Generation history, this is the place to be. Here’s everything you need to know about City Lights Bookstore.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CITY LIGHTS BOOKSTORE
A SHORT HISTORY OF CITY LIGHTS BOOKSTORE
San Francisco’s most celebrated bookstore celebrated its 70th year in 2023 and it’s aging like a fine wine. In 1953, Lawrence Ferlinghetti was contributing to a pop culture magazine under the name “Lawrence Ferling.” That magazine, owned by Peter D. Martin was named City Lights–a nod to the 1931 Charlie Chaplin film.
Martin was renting a small mezzanine space within the building where City Lights resides to run his magazine. When the small flower shop below shuttered, he decided to open an all-paperback bookstore as a way to pay rent and support the magazine. At the time, there were no all-paperback book stores in America. Paperbacks were cheap things you’d find on spinning racks at the drugstore–not in an actual bookshop.
By chance meeting, Ferlinghetti saw Martin hanging up a “pocket book shop” sign. Before long, the two men each contributed $500 and co-founded City Lights Books. They hired Shig Murao who would clerk and then manage the store through the mid-70s. In 1955, Martin bought Ferlinghetti out for $1000 and moved back to New York City.
City Lights also began its own publishing in 1955 with Pictures of the Gone World, a collection of Ferlinghetti’s early poems. This served as the first of many in the Pocket Poet Series.
City Light Press published Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg in 1956. By the summer of 1957, Murao was arrested for selling the book and Gerlinghetti was arrested for publishing it. There was an obscenity trial that eventually exonerated all parties under the First Amendment. But by this time, Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, and City Lights Bookstore were nationally known.
The logo for City Lights was chosen by Ferlinghetti from The Book of Signs by Rudolf Koch. It’s a medieval guild mark.
THE BUILDING
The triangular shaped building of City Lights Bookstore sits juxtaposed between North Beach to its front and Chinatown to its back. A bridge of culturals if you will. This area of the city was essentially demolished after the 1906 earthquake and subsequent fires and this building was no exception. It was rebuilt by architect Oliver Everett, who was able to build the new Classical Revival building over the surviving brick arches in the basement.
The building was owned by the Artigues brothers, Emile and Jean, and was a hodge-podge of storefronts over the years. These included a barber-shop, travel agency, flower shop, storage space, and private apartments.
City Lights Bookstore began its life in the front triangular part of the building after the flower shop folded and slowly acquired more space after others closed. In the year 2000, after renting space for 45 years, City Lights Bookstore was offered the opportunity to buy the building. It was restored and retrofitted for earthquake protection.
THINGS NOT TO MISS AT CITY LIGHTS BOOKSTORE
The Main Room
As you enter the building by the checkout counter, to your right will be the main room. Here you’ll find all kinds of fiction–both in paperback and hardcover–by authors from all over the world. The main room features City Lights publications as well as biographies, art books, anthologies, and more.
As you wander, don’t miss some of the hand-painted signs on the wall by Ferlinghetti. These feature sayings like “Free Speech Zone”, “A Literary Habitat for Humanity”, and “A Kind of Library where Books are Sold”.
The Poetry Room
The Poetry Room upstairs used to be an apartment where the owner and founder of Vesuvio (the bar next door and frequent Beat hangout), Henri Lenoir, lived. It’s now a bright, sun-soaked space that has more poetry offerings than most other bookstores out there.
This is also where you will find all of the Beat Literature you could ever want. Shop books by Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Henry Miller, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and more.
The Basement
The story goes that one day Ferlinghetti found some loose plywood at the back of the store and when it was removed it uncovered a large storage space that was previously used by a Chinese electrician. The space also housed the ceremonial Chinese dragon that made an annual appearance during the Chinese New Year parade (Ferlinghetti would subsequently write about this character in his poem “The Great Chinese Dragon”).
City Lights would acquire this space and add a staircase to expand the store. Head down to the basement for a large collection of nonfiction–a large assortment of world history, books on music, Native American studies, health and sexuality, psychology, Asian classics, and cognitive science. There is also a well curated children’s collection here.
If you look at portions of the ceiling, you’ll notice those brick arches that the building was constructed over after the 1906 earthquake. You may also notice curious biblical phrases such as “I Am the Door”, “Remember Lot’s Wife”, and “Jesus Wept” peeking out behind bookshelves and in other odd places. At some point, a Christian group held prayer meetings in this space and Ferlinghetti left the painted phrases as-is.
This book store is as authentic as they come, even 70 years later.
City Lights Books is located at 261 Columbus Ave., San Francisco, CA 94133. It’s open daily from 10am-10pm.
Have you visited City Lights Bookstore? Let us know what you thought in the comments!
