The fight to publish Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’

On 3 June 1957, plainclothes police officers purchased a copy of Howl and Other Poems from City Lights Books, and subsequently Ferlinghetti and Murao (the store manager) were charged, under Californian law, with the sale of ‘obscene and indecent’ material. Despite being a committed Christian and a social conservative, Justice Brennan concluded that Howl and Other Poems was a lawful publication and that, in this instance, the right to free speech should not be abridged. The People v Ferlinghetti recounts the story of the court case in an approachable but thorough manner, and draws valuable attention to how uncensored radio broadcast of ‘Howl’ on American public radio is currently impossible due to obscenity regulation, despite the fact that in print, cinema, television and press (and on the internet) such restrictions are non-existent or less severe.

Source: www.spiked-online.com