The bookstore, which also included an art gallery, was established in 1968 by Dennis Madison and Lyn Chevli, owned in her name because she had a state reseller's license.
The bookstore had legal battles with the City of Laguna Beach, charged with selling obscene literature including early underground comics by R. Crumb, Joyce Farmer, and Chevli.
ft. space, the grand opening ceremony took place on Nov. 14, 1976, with famed activist Jerry Rubin signing copies of his new book, Growing Up at Thirty-Seven (New York : M. Evans, 1976).
In a 1981 article in The New York Times on the effect of the economic slowdown on book sales throughout the country, Lorraine Zimmerman was one of five booksellers interviewed.
In January 1987, the Los Angeles Times described Fahrenheit as “one of the most distinctive independent bookstore in Southern California next to George Sand Books in West Hollywood.”[5] When the store closed under Zimmerman's ownership, the same newspaper referred to Fahrenheit as "a socially liberal literary oasis in a county famous for its ultraconservative bent.
... You won't miss it, that's for sure," he continued, "... [for] within its limited space is a connoisseur's collection of newspapers, magazines, hardcovers, and page turners.
These included Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Literary San Francisco: a Pictorial History from its Beginnings to the Present Day (Aug. 1980); Galway Kinnell, There are Things I Tell to No One (Jan. 1981); Carolyn Forché, Gathering the Tribes (Sept. 1982); Ray Bradbury and Joseph Mugnaini, Fahrenheit 451: Illustrated by Joseph Mugnaini (Dec. 1982); Oakley Hall, Children of the Sun (June 1983); Gary Snyder, Axe Handles: Poems (Sept. 1983); Denise Levertov, Light Up the Cave (April 1984); Allen Ginsberg, Collected poems, 1947-1980 (Aug. 1985); T. Jefferson Parker, Laguna Heat (Oct. 1985) and Little Saigon (Sept. 1988); June Jordan, Civil Wars: Observations from the Front Lines of America (Sept. 1986); P. D. James (Jan. 1987), Robert Ray, Dial "M" for Murdock (March 1987), Michael Chabon, The mysteries of Pittsburgh (May 1988), Alice McDermott, That Night (Nov. 1987), Charles Wright (1986), Robert Scheer (1988), and Richard Ford.
Such albums as "Pianoscapes" by Michael Jones, "Autumn" & "December" by George Winston, "Passages" by William Ackerman, and Kitarō's "Theme from Silk Road" were sold and often playing in the background.