RIP, Kepler’s bookstore
Kepler's, an independent bookstore in Menlo Park that celebrated its 50th anniversary this past May, abruptly went out of business this morning.
Apparently it was due to the high rent.
The Kepler's site has a sad note from Clark Kepler, the son of the store's founder.
I was never as huge a fan of the store as a lot of my friends were, mostly because there are other good bookstores a little closer to where I live. But the store's been a big part of Peninsula culture for a long time. That 50th-anniversary article quotes an employee as saying, "Kepler's was the intellectual hub for people in the Stanford area. Ken Kesey hung out at Kepler's to hit on chicks." The article adds: "Authority figures viewed the bookstore as a dangerous, subversive place. Mothers, teachers and rabbis told their teens not to go to Kepler's store." In more recent years, "Speakers [at the store] have ranged from commentator Arianna Huffington and rocker Grace Slick to former First Lady Barbara Bush and recently, Jane Fonda." I'm sad to see it go.
Some of us happened to stop by there this past Saturday night. (I hadn't been there for months before that.) There was no outward sign that they were in trouble. We wandered the aisles for a while. They had three copies of Mary Anne's book on the shelf.
I didn't buy anything. I regret that now, though I know it wouldn't have made a difference.