Photograph of cadets reading Allen Ginsberg's Howl

Published in 1956 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights Books as part of Howl and Other Poems, Allen Ginsberg’s Howl quickly became the subject of obscenity trials. Beginning with the now famous first line, “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,” the poem goes on to paint a picture of what their lives looked like from the East Coast to the West. Howl heavily criticizes a shallow and materialistic ethos of the United States, while exploring themes of drug use and homosexuality. With Ginsberg’s critique of governmental structures and questioning of one’s relation to them, this photograph of cadets reading Howl achieves a particular irony. 

In August 1957, Ralph McIntosh, a San Francisco assistant district attorney, put publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti on trial for distributing obscene material. Citing reviews of the poem and experts’ testimonies, Judge Clayton W. Horn found Ferlinghetti not guilty, recognizing the literary importance of the work. To quote Judge Horn’s decision: “Would there be any freedom of press or speech if one must reduce his vocabulary to vapid innocuous euphemism? An author should be real in treating his subject and be allowed to express his thoughts and ideas in his own words.”