This is rare.[as in rare books]

Sitting having lunch at La Seye et Vous at Verfeil today, I whispered  to Malc, " are they Americans?" talking about a couple sitting near us. We agreed they were, and as they were English speakers what do I produce  to give them but my Taglines business card. That often starts up a conversation, and this one was incredible! How often do you meet an antiquarian bookseller? Well I can tell you, not very often, but on this auspicious day we met a man who for 35 years had worked at " City Lights Book store" in San Francisco ending up as the store manager. For those who do not know City Lights is famous and was the meeting place of  " beat poets" many moons ago. When we did book fairs in SF we often popped in to check out their stock and just enjoy the ambiance of the place. Malc said I was so ecstatic he had to stop me kissing the couple and their dog, but he over exaggerates. They have been living in St Antonin for two years and love it , coming originally to look at the English Book shop. Decided that was not a good buy for them for  various reasons but decided to stay anyway, and love living here. I hope as they have my card they will be in touch and we can do a bit of reminiscing about our lives in bookselling . We have a friend in England who is also a bookseller, who has a second home here in France and family who live in SF. So to her I say , is that not just amazing Liz?

A Short History of City Lights

Founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, City Lights is one of the few truly great independent bookstores in the United States, a place where booklovers from across the country and around the world come to browse, read, and just soak in the ambiance of alternative culture's only "Literary Landmark." Although it has been more than fifty years since tour buses with passengers eager to sight "beatniks" began pulling up in front of City Lights, the Beats' legacy of anti-authoritarian politics and insurgent thinking continues to be a strong influence in the store, most evident in the selection of titles.

The nation's first all-paperback bookstore, City Lights has expanded several times over the years; we now offer three floors of both new-release hardcovers and quality paperbacks from all of the major publishing houses, along with an impressive range of titles from smaller, harder-to-find, specialty publishers. The store features an extensive and in-depth selection of poetry, fiction, translations, politics, history, philosophy, music, spirituality, and more, with a staff whose special book interests in many fields contribute to the hand-picked quality of what you see on the shelves.

The City Lights masthead says A Literary Meetingplace since 1953, and this concept includes publishing books as well as selling them. In 1955, Ferlinghetti launched City Lights Publishers with the now-famous Pocket Poets Series; since then the press has gone on to publish a wide range of titles, both poetry and prose, fiction and nonfiction, international and local authors. Today, City Lights has well over two hundred titles in print, with a dozen new titles being published each year. The press is known and respected for its commitment to innovative and progressive ideas, and its resistance to forces of conservatism and censorship. All City Lights Publications that are currently available are proudly featured in the bookstore and on this website as well.

With this bookstore-publisher combination, "it is as if," says Ferlinghetti, "the public were being invited, in person and in books, to participate in that 'great conversation' between authors of all ages, ancient and modern." City Lights has become world-famous, but it has retained an intimate, casual, anarchic charm. It's a completely unique San Francisco experience, and a must for anyone who appreciates good books.

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