Last weekend’s trip home to San Francisco included a fun night in North Beach for Italian food followed by a visit to City Lights Bookstore. Founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, City Lights is one of the few truly great independent bookstores in the United States, a place where booklovers from across the country and around the world come to browse, read and just soak in the ambiance of alternative culture’s only “Literary Landmark.”
Although it has been more than sixty years since tour buses with passengers eager to sight “Beatniks” began pulling up in front of City Lights, the Beats’ legacy of anti-authoritarian politics and insurgent thinking continues to be a strong influence in the store, making it a ‘must see’ stop on your next trip to San Francisco.
