"Howl" obscenity trial
E305338
The "Howl" obscenity trial was a landmark 1957 U.S. court case that tested the limits of literary free speech by challenging whether Allen Ginsberg’s poem "Howl" was legally obscene, ultimately affirming its protection under the First Amendment.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| "Howl" obscenity trial canonical | 1 |
| Howl obscenity trial | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2854887 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: "Howl" obscenity trial Context triple: [Allen Ginsberg, notableEvent, "Howl" obscenity trial]
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A.
Ruskin v. Whistler libel case
The Ruskin v. Whistler libel case was an 1878 British lawsuit in which American-born artist James McNeill Whistler sued influential critic John Ruskin for defamation over a harsh review of his painting, highlighting tensions between avant-garde art and traditional criticism.
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B.
Trial of the Twenty-One
The Trial of the Twenty-One was a 1938 Soviet show trial in Moscow in which prominent Old Bolsheviks and party leaders were accused of treason and executed, marking one of the most infamous episodes of Stalin’s Great Purge.
-
C.
Oscar Wilde libel trial
The Oscar Wilde libel trial was the 1895 court case in which playwright Oscar Wilde sued the Marquess of Queensberry for libel, leading to Wilde’s own prosecution and conviction for “gross indecency” and his subsequent downfall.
-
D.
Crimes Against Nature
"Crimes Against Nature" is a nonfiction book by environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that critiques corporate pollution and government complicity in environmental degradation.
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E.
Censura Forensis
Censura Forensis is a significant 17th-century legal treatise by Dutch jurist Simon van Leeuwen that systematically analyzes and critiques contemporary civil and canon law.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: "Howl" obscenity trial Target entity description: The "Howl" obscenity trial was a landmark 1957 U.S. court case that tested the limits of literary free speech by challenging whether Allen Ginsberg’s poem "Howl" was legally obscene, ultimately affirming its protection under the First Amendment.
-
A.
Ruskin v. Whistler libel case
The Ruskin v. Whistler libel case was an 1878 British lawsuit in which American-born artist James McNeill Whistler sued influential critic John Ruskin for defamation over a harsh review of his painting, highlighting tensions between avant-garde art and traditional criticism.
-
B.
Trial of the Twenty-One
The Trial of the Twenty-One was a 1938 Soviet show trial in Moscow in which prominent Old Bolsheviks and party leaders were accused of treason and executed, marking one of the most infamous episodes of Stalin’s Great Purge.
-
C.
Oscar Wilde libel trial
The Oscar Wilde libel trial was the 1895 court case in which playwright Oscar Wilde sued the Marquess of Queensberry for libel, leading to Wilde’s own prosecution and conviction for “gross indecency” and his subsequent downfall.
-
D.
Crimes Against Nature
"Crimes Against Nature" is a nonfiction book by environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that critiques corporate pollution and government complicity in environmental degradation.
-
E.
Censura Forensis
Censura Forensis is a significant 17th-century legal treatise by Dutch jurist Simon van Leeuwen that systematically analyzes and critiques contemporary civil and canon law.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States legal case
ⓘ
court case ⓘ landmark First Amendment case ⓘ obscenity trial ⓘ |
| charge | obscenity ⓘ |
| city | San Francisco ⓘ |
| concernsGenre | poetry ⓘ |
| concernsMovement | Beat Generation ⓘ |
| concernsWork |
Howl
ⓘ
surface form:
Howl and Other Poems
|
| constitutionalBasis | First Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court |
Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco
ⓘ
surface form:
San Francisco Municipal Court
|
| endYear | 1957 ⓘ |
| era | 1950s ⓘ |
| hasDefendantWork | Howl ⓘ |
| holding |
Howl is not obscene
ⓘ
work has redeeming social importance ⓘ |
| impact |
expanded protection for literary free speech
ⓘ
precedent for later obscenity cases ⓘ strengthened legal protection for controversial literature ⓘ |
| involvesAuthor | Allen Ginsberg ⓘ |
| involvesPublisher |
City Lights Publishers
ⓘ
surface form:
City Lights Books
Lawrence Ferlinghetti ⓘ |
| isLandmarkCaseIn |
American literary history
ⓘ
U.S. obscenity law ⓘ freedom of expression jurisprudence ⓘ |
| judge | Clayton W. Horn ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
California, United States
ⓘ
surface form:
California
|
| legalIssue |
First Amendment rights
ⓘ
freedom of speech ⓘ freedom of the press ⓘ obscenity ⓘ |
| locationOfArrest |
San Francisco
ⓘ
surface form:
San Francisco, California
|
| outcome | acquittal of publisher ⓘ |
| reasonForProsecution |
alleged explicit sexual content
ⓘ
alleged obscene language ⓘ |
| relatedMovement | Beat literature ⓘ |
| relatedOrganization |
City Lights Bookstore
ⓘ
surface form:
City Lights Books
|
| relatedPerson |
Allen Ginsberg
ⓘ
Lawrence Ferlinghetti ⓘ |
| startYear | 1957 ⓘ |
| subjectMatterOfWork |
counterculture
ⓘ
drug use ⓘ mental illness ⓘ sexuality ⓘ |
| verdict | not obscene ⓘ |
| year | 1957 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: "Howl" obscenity trial Description of subject: The "Howl" obscenity trial was a landmark 1957 U.S. court case that tested the limits of literary free speech by challenging whether Allen Ginsberg’s poem "Howl" was legally obscene, ultimately affirming its protection under the First Amendment.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.