The exhibit, running now through Nov. 30, highlights the role of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and his City Lights Bookshop in San Francisco in bringing Beat writers such as Kerouac to the public's attention. Anthony Bliss, exhibit curator, said the show's aim was to introduce the major players of the Beat era, many of whom are still active in the Bay Area. This group of writers who emerged during the 1950s rebelled against conventional attitudes, dress and speech largely as an expression of social disillusionment. The Bancroft Library exhibit gallery is packed with manuscripts, correspondence, books, art work and photographs of the Beat era, mostly from the library's own collections. The Bancroft Library holds the archives for the City Lights bookstore and publishing company, which played a major role in publishing Beat writers.
Many people are unaware of our large poetry archives.
My hope is that people will come by and do research on this wealth of material. These writers were instrumental in creating an artistic foundation for Beat writers. Photographs by Bay Area photographers Jerry Stoll and James O. Mitchell evoke moody images of the Beat era and San Francisco's North Beach in the 1950s. Inevitably, it becomes history. There have been some raised eyebrows over the appropriateness of having an exhibition on the Beat movement in a major university library.