City Lights Books records, 1953-1970.

ArchivalResource

City Lights Books records, 1953-1970.

Consists of correspondence, editorial and administrative files. Correspondents include Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Paul Bowles, Jean Jacques Lebel, Henry Miller, Kenneth Patchen, and William Carlos Williams, among others. Editorial files may contain correspondence with authors, manuscripts, mock-ups and dummies, and other editorial materials. Administrative files pertain to both the City Lights bookstore and publishing company and contain lists of publications, publicity materials, and clippings, documents on the obscenity trial resulting from the seizure of Allen Ginsberg's book Howl and Other Poems by U.S. Customs.

15 boxes, 4 cartons, 1 portfolio, 1 oversize box and 4 oversize folders (ca. 13 linear ft.)Selected items : 4 microfilm reels.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7083574

UC Berkeley Libraries

Related Entities

There are 12 Entities related to this resource.

Ferlinghetti, Lawrence, 1919-2021

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bm2556 (person)

Lawrence Ferlinghetti was an American poet and publisher, most closely associated with the Beat movement. Born in New York, Ferlinghetti suffered several family-related tragedies in his youth, and was raised in unusual circumstances. Educated at the University of North Carolina, he served in World War II, and continued his education at Columbia and The Sorbonne. He moved to San Francisco, where he co-founded City Lights book store and publishing house, which became integral wi...

Ginsberg, Allen, 1926-1997

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x45p8b (person)

Irwin Allen Ginsberg was born on June 3, 1926 in Newark, New Jersey to Louis and Naomi (Levy) Ginsberg. American poet, author, lecturer, and teacher who was one of the core members of the Beat Generation of American author's in the 1950's and early 1960's along with Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and Neal Cassady. He died of complications of liver cancer on April 6, 1997. From the description of Allen Ginsberg papers, 1937-1994. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 462019390 ...

Kerouac, Jack, 1922-1969

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66j57zj (person)

Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist of French Canadian ancestry, who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Raised in a French-speaking home in Lowell, Massachusetts, Kerouac learned English at age six and spoke with a marked accent into his late teens. Kerouac spent much of his youth engaged in sports and other physical activities. His athletic prowess earned him a...

Corso, Gregory

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jw8hft (person)

American writer, primarily of poetry, Corso was born in New York City in 1930. He worked as a migrant laborer, newspaper reporter for the L.A. Examiner, and merchant seaman before joining the English Department at SUNY Buffalo in 1965. In the mid-1950s he began to give public readings of his poetry, often sharing the stage with other Beat poets. His 1958 volume, GASOLINE, marks the beginning of his long association with San Francisco's City Lights Bookstore and the Bay Area in general, which fig...

Williams, William Carlos, 1883-1963

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gn8xd9 (person)

This collection covers the years of William Carlos Williams's medical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, a year of service at a New York City hospital, a semester of medical study in Leipzig, and the period when he was setting up his medical practice and courting his future wife, Florence Herman, in his home town of Rutherford, N.J. During this time, his younger brother Edgar went from engineering and architectural studies at M.I.T. to further study of architecture at the American Academ...

Online Archive of California

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dg0dnv (corporateBody)

Lebel, Jean-Jacques

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fb82x8 (person)

Patchen, Kenneth, 1911-1972

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ks6rjk (person)

Patchen and MacLeish, were both American poets. From the description of [Letter, 19]51 Mar. 12, Old Lyme, Conn. [to] Archibald MacLeish / Kenneth Patchen. (Smith College). WorldCat record id: 314411191 American poet, novelist, artist. From the description of Letter to Julien Cornell, 1951 January 5. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 49380977 American poet. From the description of Prospectus for "The Dark Kingdom", 1942. (Universit...

Bowles, Paul, 1910-1999

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hq3zbx (person)

American expatriate writer and novelist. From the description of Letter to Bob Sharrard, 1986 December. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 54097458 American expatriate author living in Morocco. From the description of Papers of Paul Bowles [manuscript], 1957-1984 ca. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647821107 American expatriate writer. From the description of Paul Bowles letter to Bob Sharrard [manuscript], 1987 March...

City lights books

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6n05499 (corporateBody)

City Lights Books, the first all paperback bookstore in the country, was started in San Francisco in 1953 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, in partnership with Peter Martin. Situated in North Beach on Columbus Avenue, it quickly became the center for the beat poets and other experimental writers who figured strongly in the city's literary renaissance. From the description of City Lights Books records, 1953-1970. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 227535655 ...

Miller, Henry, 1891-1980.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tb16w7 (person)

Novelist. From the description of Papers, 1952-1957. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 155457225 Henry Miller (1891-1980) was an American author. He was known for his experimental, surrealist novels, such as Tropic of Cancer, which mixed fiction and autobiography. His writing was controversial for its graphic depictions of sexuality, leading to a 1964 obscenity trial in the United States, Grove Press, Inc. v. Gerstein. From the guide to the Henry Miller Letter, unda...

Burroughs, William S., 1914-1997

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fn192d (person)

William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) was an American experimental novelist, "beat" poet, and cultural icon. From the guide to the William S. Burroughs Letter, undated, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries) William S. Burroughs (1914-1997), American novelist, essayist, writer of experimental fiction. A primary member of the Beat generation, he was an avant-garde author who affected postwar popular culture as well as literature. From the ...