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Collection Title: City Lights Books Records,
Date (inclusive): 1953-1970
Collection Number: BANC MSS 72/107 c
Creator:
City Lights Books
Extent:
Number of containers: 15 boxes, 4 cartons, 1 oversize box, 1 portfolio, and 4 oversize folders
Linear feet: (circa 13 linear feet)
Repository: The Bancroft Library.
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Abstract: 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 Books bookstore and publishing company, and contain lists of publications,
publicity materials, and clippings, and publicity and documents on the obscenity trial resulting from the seizure of Allen
Ginsberg's book
Howl by U.S. Customs.
Languages Represented:
Collection materials are in English.
Physical Location: Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information
on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Collection is open for research, with the following exceptions:
Portions of this collection have been microfilmed; originals restricted.
Portions of this collection have been microfilmed; originals restricted.
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft
Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which
must also be obtained by the reader.
[Identification of item], City Lights Books records, BANC MSS 72/107 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Title: City Lights Books Records: Additions, 1947-[on-going],
Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 77/89 c
Title: Lawrence Ferlinghetti Papers, 1919-[on-going],
Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 90/30 c
- Some photographs have been transferred to the Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library.
- Allen Ginsberg's Uncle Sam hat and placard carried at Peace Parade transferred to the Object Collections of The Bancroft Library.
- Lawrence Ferlinghetti materials have been transferred to the Lawrence Ferlinghetti Papers, 1919-[on-going], BANC MSS 90/30 c.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Ferlinghetti, Lawrence.
Booksellers and bookselling--California--San Francisco.
Publishers and publishing--California--San Francisco.
American literature--20th century.
Authors, American--20th century.
Poets, American--20th century.
Ginsberg, Allen, 1926-
Corso, Gregory.
Burroughs, William S., 1914-
Kerouac, Jack, 1922-1969.
Bowles, Paul, 1910-
Lebel, Jean Jacques.
Miller, Henry, 1891-
Patchen, Kenneth, 1911-1972.
Williams, William Carlos, 1883-1963.
Online Archive of California.
The City Lights Books records, relating to both the bookshop and the publishing company, were purchased in 1971 from the Gotham
Book Mart and Gallery, Inc.
Processed by Bancroft Library staff in 1973.
Rehoused in 2005 by Dean Smith and Holly Fox, under the supervision of Tanya Hollis.
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 Beat poets
and other experimental writers who figured strongly in the city's literary renaissance. On January 1, 1955, Ferlinghetti became
sole owner of the shop. Convinced that it was a natural for a publishing company, too, he began to publish paperbacks as well
as sell them. First to appear in 1955 was a book of his own poems,
Pictures of the Gone World, in the "Pocket Poet Series." In time, the series included works by Kenneth Rexroth, Kenneth Patchen, Allen Ginsberg, William
Carlos Williams, Robert Duncan, Gregory Corso, Frank O'Hara, Malcolm Lowry, Bob Kaufman, Philip Lamantia, and others. City
Lights also published a number of prose paperbacks, including Jack Kerouac's
Book of Dreams, Michael McClure's
Meat Science Essays, Alan Watts'
Beat Zen, Square Zen,
The Yage Letters by William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, Paul Bowles'
A Hundred Camels in the Courtyard, and Edward Dahlberg's
Bottom Dogs.
Scope and Content of Collection
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, and publicity and documents on the obscenity trial resulting from the seizure of Allen
Ginsberg's book
Howl and
Other Poems by U.S. Customs.
The following materials are available on microfilm (BANC FILM 2794):
- Howl correspondence
- Winters, Yvor, correspondence
- Kerouac, Jack, correspondence
- Ginsberg, Allen and Louis Ginsberg correspondence
Additional Notes on Collection
Collection rehoused in 2005; box numbers have been changed from earlier processing, and some items were removed to oversize.
Otherwise, order of collection has been maintained.