A former staff member of Berkeley’s listener-supported KPFA station Roy Kepler founded Kepler’s Bookstore in May of 1955 in Menlo Park.
In a relatively short time, the store became very well-known not only as a bookstore, but a cultural center, attracting faculty and students as loyal customers from nearby Stanford University. Residents of the surrounding locales interested in community affairs were also attracted to Kepler’s and became loyal customers.
It became an epicenter for the emerging “counterculture” of the ’60s.
As time passed, the customer base of Kepler’s kept expanding to include intellectuals, pacifists, hippies, and the general rock ‘n roll scene. The Whole Earth Catalog enterprise fully supported the radical Menlo Park bookstore.
The bookstore was so active in the counter culture that local artists such as Joan Baez performed there to help develop support for the growing enterprise. Jerry Garcia performed there before his Warlock and Grateful Dead days.
Local political and cultural leaders routinely “hung out” at Kepler’s, sharing ideas and interacting with patrons.
In 1980 Roy’s son Clark took over operations. One of his first moves was to close their Los Altos store. In 1990, Publishers Weekly ranked Kepler as “Bookseller of the Year.”
However, with the rise of chain stores and online shopping, it became increasingly difficult for Kepler’s to compete.
In August 2005, Kepler’s was forced to close. The local community was heartbroken and mounted an active campaign to save the troubled retailer.
Less than two months later, with the help of “community investments,” volunteers and donations, the beloved bookstore reopened and has remained open, albeit in its third location, ever since.
It would be hard to imagine life on the peninsula without Keplers…..
Everything else is just history
