Identifier	lowell
Title	James (Jim) Lowell
Subject	Lowell, Jim Booksellers Levy, Darryl Allen [D.A. Levy] Poets Asphodel Book Store Bookstores Police raids
Description	"Book seller held on indictment for obscene publications . by Hilbert Black, Chief Police Reporter James Lowell, 34, operator of the Asphodel Book Store, 306 W. Superior Ave., was arrested today and charged with possession and distribution of obscene material. The arrest came after a three-week investigation by narcotics detectives and was made under a secret indictment by the county Grand Jury. Involved were poetry reading sessions in coffee houses attended by young people of high school and college age. Quantities of mimeographed poetry and other printed material were confiscated. Sgt. Burt Miller of the narcotics squad described some of the readings as: "obscene, weird and way out." Some, he said contained foul language of the kind seen on lavatory walls. Some of the titles on the printed material were "Marijuana News Letter" "Marijuana Quarterly" and "the Weed." Before his attorney, Jonathan Drown, arrived, Lowell denied there was any obscenity in the publications. He said that poetry was "individual expression" and not harmful to even high school ages. Some of the same poetry, he said could be found in college libraries. The inquiry began when the parents of a 17 year old boy reported he had a leaflet advertising a "Happening" a poetry reading session in a downtown coffee house. In large type on the leaflet was "Marijuana-LSD-bring your own beer and wine." Detectives form the narcotics squad attended the session as patrons. They said there were about 30 boys and 20 girls, all of high school and college age, in attendance. They saw no evidence of narcotics but heard five of the guests read or recite some of the poetry. Subject matter, they said included death, suicide, use of marijuana and the hallucination - producing drug LSD, unnatural sex, immoral acts and described the city administration in foul terms. They said they learned the material had come from the Asphodel Book Store. They learned there were a dozen such coffee houses in the city, in at least three of which poetry-reading sessions had been held. One was in the basement of a church, which promptly closed the place when informed. Lowell, of 11411 Miles Ave., said he had operated his book store for more than three years in the Arcade, moving to W. Superior Ave., about six months ago. By direction of the foreman, William Pringle, the Grand Jury indictment had been kept secret until the arrest was made." -- From The Cleveland Press, December 1, 1966. See Further Reading field below to read related news accounts.
Creator	Tomsic, Tony
Location Depicted	Cleveland (Ohio)
Time Period	Decline and Comeback: 1960-1990
Date Original	1966
Object Type	black-and-white photographs
Size of Original	7x9 in.
Collection Homepage	http://www.clevelandmemory.org/levy/
Donor	Cole, Joseph E.
Copyright	http://www.clevelandmemory.org/copyright/
Format	jpeg
Language	English
Repository	Cleveland State University. Michael Schwartz Library. Special Collections.
Repository Collection	Cleveland Press (PH2000.000PRE) d. a. levy Collection
Repository Homepage	http://library.csuohio.edu/speccoll/index.html
Digital Publisher	Cleveland Memory Project
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History Entry	http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=LDAL
Further Reading	http://tinyurl.com/33rh5fv

James (Jim) Lowell

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