The City Lights Bookstore, in the North Beach section of San Francisco, is an independent bookstore specializing in poetry. In addition to selling books, it operates as a small press publisher of poetry and other books.
The bookstore was founded in 1953 by Peter D. Martin and the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Ferlinghetti became its sole owner two years after its establishment, and who began the publishing program in 1955 in order to publish Beat poets. City Lights proved its worth by publishing Howl when no other publisher would touch it. In The Fall of America , Allen Ginsberg describes City Lights as "home."
Like many independent bookstores, City Lights is a member of the American Booksellers Association.
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