On October 3, 1957, the American Civil Liberties Union wins its argument in The People of the State of California vs. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, in which it defends “Howl,” the incendiary poem written by Allen Ginsberg, against charges of obscenity. The ruling becomes a landmark victory for literary free expression in the United States.
Ginsberg, a defining poet of the Beat Generation, wrote “Howl” in 1955 as a blistering critique of consumerism and conformity that had come to define many aspects of American society during the 1950s. The 112-line poem contains explicit references to illegal drug use and gay sex, along with profanity and other graphic language. Its publication announced an emerging and electric counterculture at the same time as it sounded a warning to many Americans as a troubling march toward the obscene.
