Kepler's Books and Magazines is an

independent bookstore An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned. Usually, independent stores consist of only a single actual store (although there are some multi-store independents). They may be structured as sole proprietorships, cl ...

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; ...

. It was founded on May 14, 1955 by Roy Kepler.The culture of Kepler's
/ref> He previously had worked as a staff member of radio station

KPFA KPFA (94.1 FM) is an American listener-funded talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station sign ...

, listener-supported and based in Berkeley. The bookstore "soon blossomed into a cultural epicenter and attracted loyal customers from the students and faculty of

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and from other members of the surrounding communities who were interested in serious books and ideas."

Sixties counterculture

John Markoff John Gregory Markoff (born October 24, 1949) is a journalist best known for his work covering technology at ''The New York Times'' for 28 years until his retirement in 2016, and a book and series of articles about the 1990s pursuit and capture ...

in his 2005 text, '' What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry'', referred to Kepler's as an important meeting place for the

Counterculture of the 1960s The counterculture of the 1960s was an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon that developed throughout much of the Western world in the 1960s and has been ongoing to the present day. The aggregate movement gained momentum as the civil rights mo ...

. The ''Palo Alto Weekly'' noted that, "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'." The

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...

gave live shows there and "folk singer

Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...

, members of the Grateful Dead, and many local leaders remember sharing ideas, political action, music, and danger in the cramped store."About Kepler's
/ref> According to Scott W. Allen's '' Aces Back to Back'' (1992), the roots of the Grateful Dead's musical family tree were sown at Kepler's Books in 1960. That year, the Hunter/ Garcia folk duo played there and at universities and colleges all over the Bay Area. "From this point on," says Jerry Garcia, "I kept going farther into music and

obert Obert may refer to the following people: ;Given name *Obert Bika (born 1993), Papua New Guinean football midfielder *Obert Logan (1941–2003), American football safety *Obert Mpofu, Zimbabwean politician *Obert Nyampipira (born 1966), Zimbabwean ...

Hunter into writing."

Recent history

In 1980, Roy Kepler's son Clark took over management of the bookstore. The store had three different locations in Menlo Park, moving in 1989 to its current location in the Menlo Center on El Camino Real. In 1990 ''Publishers Weekly'' ranked Kepler's as “Bookseller of the Year.” The rise of chain bookstores and online shopping created unbeatable competition, rising prices in Menlo Park resulted in Kepler's closing its doors on August 31, 2005. The local community held demonstrations to protest the closing. Kepler's subsequently re-opened in October 2005, financed by community investments, volunteers and donations. In 2008, The Kepler's children's department won the ''Pannell Award'' for excellence. The 2008 documentary ''

Paperback Dreams ''Paperback Dreams'' is a 2008 television documentary film about the fate of bookstores in the new economy, that was part of the KQED (San Francisco's PBS station) documentary film series, ''Truly CA''. It is "the story of two landmark independen ...

'' chronicles the related histories of independent bookstores Kepler's and the now defunct

Cody's Books Cody's Books (19562008) was an independent bookstore based in Berkeley, California. It "was a pioneer in bookselling, bringing the paperback revolution to Berkeley, fighting censorship, and providing a safe harbor from tear gas directed at ant ...

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

. In 2012, Clark Kepler and Praveen Madan, of San Francisco's ''The Booksmith,'' put together the Kepler's "Transition Team," a group of volunteer local business and community leaders. It launched “Kepler’s 2020,” an initiative seeking to transform the independent bookstore into a next-generation community literary and cultural center. The project aims to "create a hybrid business model that includes a for-profit, community-owned-and-operated bookstore, and a nonprofit organization that will feature on-stage author interviews, lectures by leading intellectuals, educational workshops and other literary and cultural events," according to Kepler's press release. Under the Kepler's 2020 program Kepler's was split into two legal entities – a for-profit business with a social mission and a community sponsored nonprofit – with the complementary goals of fostering a culture of books, ideas and 'intellectual discourse and civic engagement in the community,' according to Kepler's press release." Since 2012 Kepler's successful turnaround and reinvention have continued to receive wide coverage in national and international press because of public's interest in finding sustainable models to keep bookstores thriving.

Notes

External links

*
The Kepler's 2020 Project

SaveKeplers.com

Photograph of Kepler'sKepler's Books: Paperback Dreams
{{Coord, 37.4535, -122.1820, type:landmark_region:US-CA, display=title Bookstores in the San Francisco Bay Area Independent bookstores of the United States Companies based in Menlo Park, California Bookstores established in the 20th century American companies established in 1955 Retail companies established in 1955 1955 establishments in California

Sixties counterculture

Recent history

See also

Further reading

Notes

External links