The closest you can get to the complete Beat experience without breaking a law. The 1000-plus artifacts in this museum's literary ephemera collection include the sublime (the banned edition of Ginsberg's Howl, with the author's own annotations) and the ridiculous (Kerouac bobblehead dolls are definite head-shakers). Highlights include overdue tributes to Diane di Prima and other women Beats and the writing desk of City Lights founder and SF's original Poet Laureate, Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Bookstore entry and poetry readings are free.
Enter the museum through the adjoining museum store, stocked with poetry chapbooks and obscure Beat titles you won't find elsewhere. You'll notice there's a dusty old car parked downstairs: that's a 1949 Hudson roadster, and it's covered with dust accumulated over 4000 miles of driving coast to coast for the filming of 2012's On the Road movie. On weekends, you may luck into the occasional guided two-hour walking tour covering the museum, Beat history and literary alleys ($30,15-person minimum).
