In 1953 Lawrence Ferlinghetti, with Peter D. Martin, founded a bookstore in San Francisco that sold only paperbacks called City Lights (after Charlie Chaplin's movie of the same name). After buying out Martin in 1955, Ferlinghetti began publishing a series of avant-garde poetry and fiction under the imprint of City Lights Books. Howl by Allen Ginsberg was number four in the series and became City Lights Books' first major success. A highly successful poet himself, Ferlinghetti published most of the influential Beat writers, including Kerouac, Burroughs, Corso, Snyder, Di Prima, and Jones.