Kepler's

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Kepler's bookstore

Kepler's Books is an independent bookstore founded in May 14, 1955 by Roy Kepler in Menlo Park, California approximately two miles from the Stanford University campus. It was an important fixture in the 1960s counterculture; (the Grateful Dead gave live shows there early in their career.)

1 History
- 1.1 Short closing and re-opening
2 Notable authors
3 Notes
4 External Links

[edit] History

Kepler's was founded on May 14, 1955 by Roy Kepler. Roy Kepler was a conscientious objector during World War II. When the war ended, Kepler moved into the next phase of peace activism as the Cold War heated up. He spoke before the House Armed Services Committee about non-violence and he culture of fear and suspicion brewing in the United States. Kepler opened his bookstore in Menlo Park in 1955 as a means to support his family, but also to create access to a range of ideas, his son Clark said. Kepler posted signs in the windows in 1956 proclaiming "The Peninsula's largest anti-missile bookstore."

The store "soon blossomed into a cultural epicenter and attracted loyal customers from the students and faculty of Stanford University and from other members of the surrounding communities who were interested in serious books and ideas". Kepler's also played an important role in the of the 1960s as "some of the young people who used to hang out in the heady atmosphere created by Roy Kepler are now legends themselves. Folk singer Joan Baez, members of the Grateful Dead, and many local leaders remember sharing ideas, political action, music, and danger in the cramped store".

Roy Kepler wanted people to make informed choices. He put a copy of Mao's "Red Book" in the store window. He sold "soft porn" wrapped in brown paper and reportedly didn't support Mao, but thought people should be able to buy anything.

Kepler's was radical in another way: it was the first bookstore to sell paperback books on the Peninsula. Through the 60s and 70s, the culture of Kepler's began to evolve into a broader counter-culture. Beat intellectuals and pacifists were joined by people who worked for Whole Earth, hippies into the rock and roll and recreational drug scene, politicos, and people with an interest in ethnic groups.

Extremist groups targeted the store in the '60s, throwing rocks and a hatchet through its windows. Arsonists struck his bookstores in Los Altos and Menlo Park. A bomb shattered the store's windows in Los Altos. There was even a death threat.

In 1972, Kepler turned management of the store over to Kohn, a Midwestern bookstore owner and longtime friend. Kohn worked in a more low-key fashion, but the tenor of the counter-culture was still evident.

Also in that year police had to close the store down after Kepler's received a bomb threat when U.S. Rep. Paul McCloskey appeared for a book signing. In 1989, there was another bomb threat when the store held a protest after Ayatollah Khomeini imposed a death edict on writer Salman Rushdie for his novel "The Satanic Verses."

In the 1980's Clark Kepler took over the store. Kepler's has remained socially conscious, donating books to early literacy programs in schools and raising funds for a variety of community nonprofits. A percentage of proceeds from sales of journalist Mike Doyle's history of Kepler's monograph will be donated to the Resource Center for Non-Violence in Santa Cruz, where many of Roy Kepler's collection of books reside.

[edit] Short closing and re-opening

Kepler's announced in September, 2005 that it would be closing. The local community held demonstrations to protest the closing, and started a blog. Kepler's subsequently re-opened in October of 2005.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]