City Lights is one of the most famous bookstores in the world, founded in 1953 by the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter Martin as the country's first all-paperback bookshop. As a publisher it printed Allen Ginsberg's Howl in 1956; the resulting obscenity trial, which Ferlinghetti won, was a landmark for free speech and made City Lights the headquarters of the Beat literary movement. It remains an independent shop and publisher, designated a city landmark.
The three floors are a pleasure to browse: strong on poetry, fiction, politics, and translation, with the famous upstairs Poetry Room and Beat-era touches throughout. Step outside into Jack Kerouac Alley, painted with literary quotations, which links the store to the old Beat bar Vesuvio next door. It is the essential first stop in literary North Beach.