He studied at [[Columbia University]] in the 1940s and moved to [[San Francisco]] in 1954.<ref>http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/8</ref> ''Howl and Other Poems'' was published in 1956, and in May of that year, US Customs seized a shipment of the books as they were being sent from the printer (Villiers in London) to City Lights Books in San Francisco. After federal authorities declined Customs Chief Chester McPhee's urging to pursue obscenity charges, the matter was referred to the [[San Francisco Police Department]], who arrested publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti, charging him with publishing and selling an obscene and indecent book. The charge was rejected in October 1957 after a widely publicized trial when Judge Clayton Horn ruled that the book had redeeming social value.<ref>http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/ginsberg/life.htm</ref> | He studied at [[Columbia University]] in the 1940s and moved to [[San Francisco]] in 1954.<ref>http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/8</ref> ''Howl and Other Poems'' was published in 1956, and in May of that year, US Customs seized a shipment of the books as they were being sent from the printer (Villiers in London) to City Lights Books in San Francisco. After federal authorities declined Customs Chief Chester McPhee's urging to pursue obscenity charges, the matter was referred to the [[San Francisco Police Department]], who arrested publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti, charging him with publishing and selling an obscene and indecent book. The charge was rejected in October 1957 after a widely publicized trial when Judge Clayton Horn ruled that the book had redeeming social value.<ref>http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/ginsberg/life.htm</ref> |