An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned . Usually, independent stores consist of only a single actual store (although there are some multi-store independents). They may be structured as sole proprietorships , closely held corporations or partnerships , cooperatives , or nonprofits. Independent stores can be contrasted with chain bookstores , which have many locations and are owned by corporations which often have divisions in other lines besides bookselling. Specialty stores such as comic book shops tend to be independent.
59-464: City Lights is an independent bookstore -publisher combination in San Francisco, California, that specializes in world literature , the arts, and progressive politics . It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected titles related to San Francisco culture. It was founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin (who left two years later). Both
118-399: A 1968 interview with Rolling Stone she expressed her desire for Krassner to write the liner notes for her new solo album. "I met him with Timothy Leary ," Elliott said, "and I fell instantly in love with his entire mind and body, and I would do anything for him. He's a hopeless idealist. I asked him to write my liner notes and he was delighted. He asked me what to write. I said write about
177-459: A beacon, a place of learning and enlightenment. City Lights sells a curated selection of new books, specializing in literature, cultural studies, world history, and politics. It offers three floors of new-release hardcovers and paperbacks from all major publishers, as well as a large selection of titles from smaller, independent publishers. It hosts weekly events in its City Lights LIVE programming series, which switched to virtual events in 2020 due to
236-410: A bookstore. Before long he and Martin agreed to a partnership. Each man invested $ 500. Soon after they opened, they hired Shig Murao as a clerk. Murao worked without pay for the first few weeks, but eventually became manager of the store and was a key element in creating the unique feel of City Lights. In 1955, Martin sold his share of the business to Ferlinghetti for $ 1000, moved to New York and started
295-499: A branch of the City College of New York ) and began performing as a comedian under the name Paul Maul . He recalled: While in college, I started working for an anti-censorship paper, The Independent . After I left college I started working there full time. So, I never had a normal job where I had to be interviewed and wear a suit and tie. I became their managing editor and also did freelance stuff for Mad magazine. But Mad
354-440: A city landmark because of its "distinctive characteristics typical of small commercial buildings constructed following the 1906 earthquake and fire." The landmark designation mandates the preservation of certain external features of the building and its immediate surroundings. Peters commented (referring to the effect of dotcom and computer firms), "The old San Francisco is under attack to the point where it's disappearing." By 2003,
413-478: A co-owner of it. Ferlinghetti credits her for the subsequent survival and growing success of the business. In 1999, with Ferlinghetti, she bought the building they worked in. In 2001, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors made City Lights an official historic landmark – the first time this had been granted to a business, rather than a building – citing the organization for "playing a seminal role in
472-446: A digital color version). Krassner published a red, white and blue poster that read "Fuck Communism", and enclosed copies with an issue of The Realist . He also mailed one to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover with a note that said "I hope you get a chuckle out of the enclosed patriotic poster." Krassner's hope was that he would be arrested for sending obscene material through the mail, which would allow him to get publicity for his magazine. He
531-498: A key figure in the counterculture of the 1960s as a member of Ken Kesey 's Merry Pranksters and a founding member of the Yippies , a term he is credited with coining. Krassner was a child violin prodigy and performed at Carnegie Hall in 1939 at age six. His parents practiced Judaism , but Krassner chose to be firmly secular, considering religion "organized superstition". He majored in journalism at Baruch College (then
590-405: A million. Ginsberg continued to publish his major books of poetry with the press for the next 25 years. Even after the publication by Harper & Row of his Collected Poems in 1980, he would continue his warm association with City Lights, which served as his local base of operations, for the rest of his life. Independent bookstore Author events at independent bookstores sometimes take
649-486: A prostitute for the night as a birthday gift for a male friend, or who, like Paul, reels off the names in alphabetical order of people in the women's movement he has fucked, reels off names in the best locker-room tradition—as proof that he's no sexist oppressor. Krassner married Jeanne Johnson in 1963 and had one daughter named Holly. They later divorced. In 1985, Krassner moved to Venice, California where he met his wife of 32 years, artist and videographer Nancy Cain, one of
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#1732772145017708-523: Is a medieval guild mark , chosen by Ferlinghetti, from Rudolf Koch 's The Book of Signs . In 1970, City Lights hired Paul Yamazaki, an activist who had been jailed during protests for Black studies and Ethnic studies departments at San Francisco State University . Yamazaki would continue working at the bookstore for over fifty years, and in 2023 was awarded the National Book Foundation 's Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to
767-730: Is dangerous – and funny; and necessary." In 2005 he received a Grammy nomination for Best Album Notes for his essay on the 6-CD package Lenny Bruce : Let the Buyer Beware . Krassner was criticized, along with many males on the Left, in Robin Morgan 's feminist manifesto, "Goodbye to All That," written in 1970: Goodbye to lovely "pro-Women's Liberationist" Paul Krassner, with all his astonished anger that women have lost their sense of humor "on this issue" and don't laugh any more at little funnies that degrade and hurt them: farewell to
826-578: The American Civil Liberties Union that the organization would defend him, should he be prosecuted for obscenity. Published in November 1956, Howl was not long in generating controversy. In March 1957, local Collector of Customs Chester MacPhee seized a shipment from England of the book's second printing on grounds of obscenity, but he was compelled to release the books when federal authorities refused to confirm his charge. But
885-495: The Vietnam War going on, and with its critics discounted and scorned by the government and the mass media, Krassner put on sale a red, white and blue poster that said FUCK COMMUNISM. At the beginning of the 1960s, FUCK was believed to be so full of bad magic as to be unprintable. ... By having FUCK and COMMUNISM fight it out in a single sentence, Krassner wasn't merely being funny as heck. He was demonstrating how preposterous it
944-550: The Yippies or write about anything; just write what you would like people to read, it doesn't have to do with the album." Krassner is the only person to have won awards from both Playboy magazine (for satire) and the Feminist Party Media Workshop (for journalism). In 2000, he was given a Firecracker Alternative Book Award for High Times Presents Paul Krassner's Pot Stories for the Soul . In 2001, he
1003-894: The buy local movement and success in curation of interesting titles and hosting book-oriented community events. The market has bifurcated between consumers looking for a highly interactive experience at local stores and consumers looking for low-cost, high-selection stores where large chains compete with difficulty against online sales. In 2023 it was announced that about 17 businesses Vermont will donate their sales to help Bear Pond Books in Montpelier, Vermont and Next Chapter Bookstore in Barre . They include Bennington Bookshop, Bennington , The Book Nook, Ludlow , Norwich Bookstore, Norwich , Vermont Book Shop, Middlebury , and Rootstock Publishing, Montpelier. Two documentary films, Indies Under Fire (2006) and Paperback Dreams (2008), explore
1062-501: The American Medical Association , but presenting it as original material. The article dealt with drinking glasses, tennis balls and other foreign bodies found in patients' rectums. Some accused him of having a perverted mind, and a subscriber wrote "I found the article thoroughly repellent. I trust you know what you can do with your magazine." Krassner revived The Realist as a much smaller newsletter during
1121-661: The Assemblage by Juan Felipe Herrera (who was U.S. Poet Laureate at the time), Dated Emcees by Chinaka Hodge , an anniversary edition of The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez , Incidents of Travel in Poetry by Frank Lima , Retablos by Octavio Solis , Poso Wells by Gabriela Alemán , Under the Dome by Jean Daive , and Funeral Diva by Pamela Sneed , among others. The press has also published two books by Tongo Eisen-Martin , Poet Laureate of San Francisco. Associated from
1180-580: The Literary Community. In 1971, Ferlinghetti persuaded Nancy Peters – who was working at the Library of Congress – to join in a project with him, after which she began full-time work at City Lights. She said: When I joined City Lights in 1971, and started working with Lawrence, it was clear that it had been very much a center of protest, for people with revolutionary ideas and people who wanted to change society. And when I first began working at
1239-576: The New Yorker Bookstore which specialized in cinema. In the late 1960s, Ferlinghetti hired Joseph Wolberg, former philosophy professor at SUNY Buffalo, to manage the bookstore. Wolberg is credited with organizing the once chaotically messy shelves and for convincing a cheap Ferlinghetti to install anti-shoplifting metal detectors. Through his connection to City Lights, Wolberg produced records for Beat poets such as Charles Bukowski and Shel Silverstein . The logo for City Lights Bookstore
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#17327721450171298-584: The Six Gallery; the next day, he offered to publish it along with other shorter poems. William Carlos Williams — who was Ginsberg's childhood Pediatrician and himself a future Pocket Poet with a 1957 edition of his early modernist classic, Kora in Hell ( 1920 ) — was recruited for an introduction, perhaps to lend literary justification to Howl' s depictions of drug use and homosexuality. Prior to publication, Ferlinghetti had asked, and received, assurance from
1357-615: The Soul (1999), is from other authors and is about marijuana . Psychedelic Trips for the Mind (2001), is written by Krassner himself and collects stories on LSD . The third, Magic Mushrooms and Other Highs (2004), is by Krassner too, and deals with magic mushrooms , ecstasy , peyote , mescaline , THC , opium , cocaine , ayahuasca , belladonna , ketamine , PCP , STP , " toad slime ", and more. In 1962 Krassner published an anonymous interview with Dr Robert Spencer detailing his involvement in illegal but safe abortions. Subsequent to
1416-726: The United States dropped 40% from 1995 to 2000. In the 2000s, e-books started to take market share away from printed books, either published directly via the World Wide Web , or read on e-ink devices such as the Amazon Kindle , introduced in 2007. Amazon continued to gain significant market share, and these competitive pressures resulted in a collapse of the chain stores in the 2010s. Crown closed in 2001; Borders, B. Dalton, and Waldenbooks were liquidated in 2010-11. A smaller Barnes & Noble, with its Nook e-reader
1475-540: The Vietnam War. In the 1960s, Krassner was a regular contributor to several men's magazines including Cavalier and Playboy . Cavalier hired Krassner for $ 1,000 per month to write a column called "The Naked Emperor." In 1971, Krassner worked as a weekend radio personality and disk jockey at San Francisco's ABC-FM radio affiliate, KSFX , (subsequently KGO-FM). Under the pseudonym "Rumpelforeskin", he satirized culture and politics while espousing his atheism. He
1534-570: The book she authorized – William Manchester's The Death Of A President – because what I wrote was a metaphorical truth about LBJ's personality presented in a literary context, and because the imagery was so shocking, it broke through the notion that the war in Vietnam was being conducted by sane men." In 1966, he reprinted in The Realist an excerpt from the academic journal the Journal of
1593-496: The building with a number of other shops. It gradually gained more space whenever one of the other shops became vacant, and eventually occupied the entire building. In 1953, as Ferlinghetti was walking past the Artigues Building, he encountered Martin out front hanging up a sign that announced a "Pocket Book Shop." He introduced himself as a contributor to Martin's magazine City Lights , and told him he had always wanted
1652-541: The bullet-hole wound in the throat of John F. Kennedy 's corpse. According to Elliot Feldman, "Some members of the mainstream press and other Washington political wonks, including Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame, actually believed this incident to be true." In a 1995 interview for the magazine Adbusters , Krassner commented: "People across the country believed – if only for a moment – that an act of presidential necrophilia had taken place. It worked because Jackie Kennedy had created so much curiosity by censoring
1711-480: The case, and secured the pro bono services of famous criminal defense lawyer J. W. Ehrlich. The municipal court trial, presided over by Judge Clayton W. Horn , ran from August 16 to September 3, 1957. The charges against Murao were dismissed since it couldn't be proved that he knew what was in the book. Then, during the trial of Ferlinghetti, respected writers and professors testified for the defense. Judge Horn rendered his precedent-setting verdict, declaring that Howl
1770-448: The difficulties faced by U.S. independent bookstores in the new economy . The competition between chain and independent retailers was fictionalized in the 1998 film You've Got Mail . Paul Krassner Paul Krassner (April 9, 1932 – July 21, 2019) was an American writer and satirist. He was the founder, editor, and a frequent contributor to the freethought magazine The Realist , first published in 1958. Krassner became
1829-478: The literary and cultural development of San Francisco and the nation." It recognized the bookstore as "a landmark that attracts thousands of book lovers from all over the world because of its strong ambiance of alternative culture and arts", and it acknowledged City Lights Publishers for its "significant contribution to major developments in post- World War II literature." The building itself, with its clerestory windows and small mezzanine balcony, also qualified as
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1888-433: The little editorial office up on Filbert and Grant, people that Lawrence had known through the whole decade of the '60s were dropping in all the time, like Paul Krassner , Tim Leary , people who were working with underground presses and trying to provide an alternative to mainstream media. This was a period of persecution, and FBI infiltration of those presses. In 1984, the business was in a financial crisis and Peters became
1947-399: The memory of his "Instant Pussy" aerosol-can poster, to his column for the woman-hating men's magazine Cavalier , to his dream of a Rape-In against legislators' wives, to his Scapegoats and Realist Nuns and cute anecdotes about the little daughter he sees as often as any properly divorced Scarsdale middle-aged father; goodbye forever to the notion that a man is my brother who, like Paul, buys
2006-540: The mid-1980s when material from the magazine was collected in The Best of the Realist: The 60's Most Outrageously Irreverent Magazine (Running Press, 1985). The final issue of The Realist was #146 (Spring, 2001). Krassner was a prolific writer. In 1971, he published a collection of his favorite works for The Realist , as How A Satirical Editor Became A Yippie Conspirator In Ten Easy Years . In 1981 he published
2065-514: The name to establish the first all-paperback bookstore in the U.S., at the time an audacious idea. The site was a tiny storefront in the triangular Artigues Building located at 261 Columbus Avenue, near the intersection of Broadway in North Beach . Built on the ruins of a previous building destroyed in the fire following the 1906 earthquake, the building was designed by Oliver Everett in 1907 and named for its owners. City Lights originally shared
2124-471: The outset with radical left-wing politics and issues of social justice, City Lights has in recent years augmented its list of political non-fiction, publishing books by Angela Y. Davis , Noam Chomsky , Michael Parenti , Howard Zinn , Mumia Abu-Jamal , Ward Churchill , Tim Wise , Roy Scranton , John Gibler , Todd Miller , Clarence Lusane , Ralph Nader , Henry A. Giroux , and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz . Ferlinghetti had heard Ginsberg read Howl in 1955 at
2183-622: The pandemic. City Lights is a member of the American Booksellers Association . In 1955 , Ferlinghetti launched City Lights Publishers with his own Pictures of the Gone World , the first number in the Pocket Poets Series . This was followed in quick succession by Thirty Spanish Poems of Love and Exile translated by Kenneth Rexroth and Poems of Humor & Protest by Kenneth Patchen , but it
2242-527: The press published an anthology of texts by Antonin Artaud , edited by Jack Hirschman . In 2014, the press published its first New York Times bestselling book, Rad American Women A-Z , the press's first book for children, by Kate Schatz with illustrations by Miriam Klein Stahl . Since then, other critically acclaimed books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry include Man Alive by Thomas Page McBee , Notes on
2301-578: The publication, he received calls from women asking to be put in contact with the interviewee. Krassner was later subpoenaed to appear before grand juries investigating abortion crime. In 1965 he contributed to the Free University of New York a lecture entitled "Why the New York Times is funnier than Mad Magazine". In 1968, Krassner signed the " Writers and Editors War Tax Protest " pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against
2360-464: The publishing operation moved to 1562 Grant Avenue. Dick McBride ran this part of the business with his brother Bob McBride and Martin Broadley for several years. In 1971, Nancy Peters joined Ferlinghetti as co-editor and publisher. He praised her as "one of the best literary editors in the country.". Presently, the publisher is Elaine Katzenberger, who is also the director of the bookstore. Over
2419-651: The role of literary salons and independents historically supported new authors and independent presses. For most of the 20th century, almost all bookstores in the United States were independent. In the 1950s, automobiles and suburban shopping malls became more common. Mall-based bookstore chains began in the 1960s, and underwent a major number expansion in the 1970s and 1980s, especially B. Dalton and Waldenbooks . Big-box stores also expanded during this period, including Barnes & Noble (which also acquired Texas chain Bookstop ), Borders , and Crown Books . Amazon
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2478-684: The satirical story Tales of Tongue Fu , in which the hilarious misadventures of the Japanese-American man Tongue Fu are mixed with a wicked social commentary. In 1994, he published his autobiography Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut: Misadventures in Counter-Culture . In July 2009, City Lights Publishers released Who's to Say What's Obscene? , a collection of satirical essays that explore contemporary comedy and obscenity in politics and culture. He published three collections of drug stories. The first collection, Pot Stories for
2537-463: The status of classics, including True Minds by Marie Ponsot ( 1957 ), Here and Now by Denise Levertov ( 1958 ), Gasoline ( 1958 ) by Gregory Corso , Selected Poems by Robert Duncan ( 1959 ), Lunch Poems ( 1964 ) by Frank O'Hara , Selected Poems ( 1967 ) by Philip Lamantia , Poems to Fernando ( 1968 ) by Janine Pommy Vega , Golden Sardine ( 1969 ) by Bob Kaufman , and Revolutionary Letters ( 1971 ) by Diane di Prima . In 1967
2596-568: The store and the publishers became widely known following the obscenity trial of Ferlinghetti for publishing Allen Ginsberg 's influential collection Howl and Other Poems (City Lights, 1956). Nancy Peters started working there in 1971 and retired as executive director in 2007. In 2001, City Lights was made an official historic landmark. City Lights is located at 261 Columbus Avenue. While formally located in Chinatown , it self-identifies as part of immediately adjacent North Beach . City Lights
2655-424: The store had 15 employees. Peters estimated that the year's profits would be only "maybe a thousand dollars." In 2007, after 23 years as executive director, she stepped down from the post, which was filled by Elaine Katzenberger; Peters remained on the board of directors. Peters said of her work at City Lights: When I started working here we were in the middle of the Vietnam War, and now it's Iraq. This place has been
2714-623: The troubles were just beginning, for in June of that year, local police raided City Lights Bookstore and arrested store manager Shigeyoshi Murao on the charge of offering an obscene book for sale. Ferlinghetti, then in Big Sur , turned himself in on his return to San Francisco. Both faced a possible $ 500 fine and a 6-month sentence. (Ginsberg was in Tangiers at the time, and not charged.) The ACLU posted bail, assigned defense counsel Albert Bendich to
2773-699: The word "Yippie," and a member of Ken Kesey 's Merry Pranksters , famous for prankster activism. He was a close protégé of the controversial comedian Lenny Bruce , and the editor of Bruce's autobiography, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People . With the encouragement of Bruce, Krassner started to perform standup comedy in 1961 at the Village Gate in New York. In 1963, he created what Kurt Vonnegut described as "a miracle of compressed intelligence nearly as admirable for potent simplicity, in my opinion, as Einstein 's e=mc2 ." Vonnegut explained: "With
2832-570: The years, the press has published a wide range of poetry and prose, fiction and nonfiction, and works in translation. In addition to books by Beat Generation authors, the press publishes literary work by such authors as Charles Bukowski , Georges Bataille , Rikki Ducornet , Paul Bowles , Sam Shepard , Andrei Voznesensky , Nathaniel Mackey , Alejandro Murguía , Pier Paolo Pasolini , Ernesto Cardenal , Daisy Zamora , Guillermo Gómez-Peña , Juan Goytisolo , Anne Waldman , André Breton , Kamau Daáood , Masha Tupitsyn , and Rebecca Brown . In 1965,
2891-708: Was a columnist for The Nation , AVN Online and High Times . He also blogged at The Huffington Post and The Rag Blog . Krassner wrote about the Patty Hearst trial and possible connections between the Symbionese Liberation Army and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Krassner's legs appeared in John Lennon and Yoko Ono 's 1971 film Up Your Legs Forever . Singer Cass Elliot greatly admired Krassner. In
2950-490: Was aimed at a teenage audience, and there was no satirical magazine for adults. So it was a kind of organic evolution toward The Realist , which was essentially a combination of satire and alternative journalism. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, he was active in politically edged humor and satire. Krassner was a founder of the Youth International Party (Yippies) in 1967, even credited with coining
3009-675: Was also a contributor to early issues of Mad magazine . He often appeared as a stand-up comedian, and he was among those featured in the 2005 documentary The Aristocrats . Krassner was also a prolific lecturer and was a frequent speaker at both the Starwood Festival and the WinterStar Symposium . In 1998 he was featured at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with Wavy Gravy during their exhibit entitled I Want to Take You Higher : The Psychedelic Era 1965–1969 . He
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#17327721450173068-516: Was disappointed when no prosecution resulted. Krassner's most notorious satire was the article " The Parts That Were Left Out of the Kennedy Book ", which followed the censorship of William Manchester 's 1967 book on the John F. Kennedy assassination , The Death of a President . At the climax of the grotesque -genre short-story, Lyndon B. Johnson is described as having sexually penetrated
3127-426: Was for so many people to be responding to both words with such cockamamie Pavlovian fear and alarm. The Realist was published on a fairly regular schedule during the 1960s, then on an irregular schedule after the early 1970s. In 1966, Krassner published The Realist ' s controversial " Disneyland Memorial Orgy " poster, illustrated by Wally Wood (he later made this famed black-and-white poster available in
3186-1254: Was founded during the dot-com boom in 1994 and exclusively sold books until 1998. By the 1990s, these competitive pressures had put independent bookstores under considerable financial pressure and many closed due to their inability to compete. Closures in the United States include Kroch's and Brentano's (1995) in Chicago, Gotham Book Mart (2006) in New York, Cody's Books (2008) in Berkeley , Kepler's Books (2005) in Menlo Park, Printers Inc. Bookstore (2001) in Palo Alto , A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books (2006) in San Francisco, Midnight Special Bookstore (2004) in Santa Monica , Dutton's Books (2008) in Los Angeles , Coliseum Books (2007) in New York City, and Wordsworth Books (2004) in Cambridge . The number of independent booksellers in
3245-425: Was left as the only nation-wide chain, with the second-largest Books-A-Million operating in only 32 states. This collapse created an opening for the return of more independent shops. According to the American Booksellers Association , the number of independent U.S. bookstores increased 35%, from 1,651 in 2009 to 2,227 in 2015. A Harvard Business School study by professor Ryan Raffaelli attributed this increase to
3304-466: Was not obscene and that a book with "the slightest redeeming social importance" merits First Amendment protection. Horn's decision established the precedent that paved the way for the publication of such hitherto banned books as D. H. Lawrence 's Lady Chatterley's Lover and Henry Miller 's Tropic of Cancer . The media attention resulting from the trial stimulated national interest, and, by 1958, there were 20,000 copies in print. Today there are over
3363-639: Was the first living man to be inducted into the Counterculture Hall of Fame , which took place at the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam. He received an American Civil Liberties Union Uppie ( Upton Sinclair ) Award for dedication to freedom of expression, and, according to the FBI files, he was described by the FBI as "a raving, unconfined nut". George Carlin commented: "The FBI was right, this man
3422-570: Was the impact of the fourth volume, Howl and Other Poems ( 1956 ) by Allen Ginsberg that brought national attention to the author and publisher. City Lights Journal published poems of the Indian Hungry generation writers when the group faced police case in Kolkata. The group got worldwide publicity thereafter. Apart from Ginsberg's seven collections, a number of the early Pocket Poets volumes brought out by Ferlinghetti have attained
3481-475: Was the inspiration of Peter D. Martin , who relocated from New York City to San Francisco in the 1940s to teach sociology. He first used City Lights , in homage to the Chaplin film , in 1952 as the title of a magazine, publishing early work by such key Bay Area writers as Philip Lamantia , Pauline Kael , Jack Spicer , Robert Duncan , and Ferlinghetti himself, as "Lawrence Ferling". A year later, Martin used
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