on>
Howl
on trial
Howl
on trial
The Battle for Free Expression
EDITED BY
BILL MORGAN AND
NANCY J. PETERS
CITY LIGHTS BOOKS SAN FRANCISCO
Copyright © 2006 by Bill Morgan
Copyright © 2006 by City Lights Books
All Rights Reserved
Cover design: Stefan Gutermuth
Typography: Harvest Graphics
Press section design: Yolanda Montijo
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Howl on trial : the battle for free expression / edited by Bill Morgan and Nancy J. Peters.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-87286-479-5
ISBN-10: 0-87286-479-0
1. Ginsberg, Allen, 1926-1997. Howl. 2. Ginsberg, Allen, 1926-1997—Censorship. 3. Censorship—United States—History. 4. Trials (Obscenity)—California—San Francisco. I. Morgan, Bill, 1949- II. Peters, Nancy J. (Nancy Joyce) III. Title.
PS3513.I74H634 2006
811’.54—dc22
CITY LIGHTS BOOKS are edited by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Nancy J. Peters and published at the City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133. www.citylights.com
“The paper burns, but the words fly away.”
—Akiba ben Joseph
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Fifty years after the trial it seems impossible to believe that anyone could have ever doubted the literary merit of Howl and Other Poems. The courage required to take on the government censors cannot be forgotten. Judge Clayton M. Horn, ACLU attorneys Albert M. Bendich and Lawrence Speiser, attorney J.W. Ehrlich, and defendants Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Shigeyoshi Murao have our everlasting gratitude for supporting freedom of speech so unselfishly. Additional heartfelt thanks go to Bendich and Ferlinghetti for contributing their memories to this current book.
The Allen Ginsberg Trust has been instrumental in the creation of this volume as well. Thanks to Bob Rosenthal, Andrew Wylie and Peter Hale of the Trust for their cooperation and for permission to use Ginsberg’s words and photographs.
The devotion of the City Lights staff to the work of Allen Ginsberg has been remarkable over the past fifty years and this current book is no exception. Nancy J. Peters, Bob Sharrard, Elaine Katzenberger, Stacey Lewis, and Chanté Mouton have each contributed to what is truly a group effort. Special thanks go to Chanté Mouton for her thorough research into trial records and press coverage of events.
Thanks also go to Brian Chambers at San Francisco State University. Laura Perkins and other staff at the San Francisco Chronicle generously gave time and effort to uncover records and arranged for use of staff photographs and news articles. The paper’s support during the trial was critical to the case for free speech. David Perlman, who covered the trial for the Chronicle, kindly gave permission to reprint his “How Captain Hanrahan Made Howl a Best-Seller,” published in the San Francisco Reporter. John G. Fuller’s delightful column on the pending trial appeared in Saturday Review. KPFA Pacifica supplied other useful documentation. The support and assistance of Judy Matz and Garret Caples were invaluable.
Various libraries have also been useful sources of information for this book. We are especially grateful to San Francisco State University Library, San Francisco Public Library’s San Francisco History Center, and to Princeton University Library’s Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, where ACLU records of the period are kept. Tony Bliss of the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, is the guardian of the City Lights Archives there and has given assistance in countless ways.
CONTENTS
“Howl” at the Frontiers by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Allen Ginsberg’s Howl: a Chronology by Bill Morgan
Censorship Milestones by Nancy J. Peters
“Howl” by Allen Ginsberg
The Howl Letters, edited by Bill Morgan
Iron Curtain on the Embarcadero by Abe Mellinkoff
Letters to the San Francisco Chronicle
Ferlinghetti Defends Publication
Orwell’s Big Brother Is Watching Us by William Hogan
Trade Winds by John G. Fuller
Excerpts from the Trial Transcript
From The Decision by Judge Clayton M. Horn
How Captain Hanrahan Made Howl a Best-Seller by David Perlman
Ginsberg “Howls” Again [Ginsberg’s Letter to the San Francisco Chronicle]
Fifty Years of City Lights by Albert M. Bendich
The Censorship Battle Continues by Bill Morgan
Lawrence
