Named for the Charlie Chaplin movie (Martin was a film buff, and would soon move to New York to open a bookstore specializing in cinema), City Lights would grow quickly – both as bookstore and press – subsuming the adjacent flower shop, and then taking over the entire Artigues building on Columbus Avenue.

 

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Source: http://www.theguardian.com/global/interview-with-a-bookstore-by-literary-hub/2016/mar/14/interview-with-a-bookstore-san-francisco-city-lights