Have you heard of W.K. Stewart? We’re on the hunt to uncover the history of a once-prominent bookstore owned by a relative of Kurt Vonnegut. Here’s what we know so far.
Our story begins with Declan, who publishes our sister newsletter LOUtoday out of Louisville, KY. They discovered the existence of a W.K. Stewart bookstore in their city after stumbling upon the name in “Timequake,” Kurt Vonnegut’s 1997 novel. Declan outlined the history of that bookstore and the familial ties of the owner, William Kerfoot Stewart, to Vonnegut. Suffice it to say, they were distant cousins by marriage.
Declan then passed the mic to us to see what else we could uncover about W.K. Stewart’s presence in Indianapolis. According to our research, The W. K. Stewart Company sold books and stationery in the Circle City in the early 1900s.
Evidently, it published books too — we found a super cool booklet titled “Views of Indianapolis: No Mean City” that was published by W.K. Stewart in the early 1900s for sale on eBay. We also found a digital copy of “A History of Indiana From Its Exploration to 1850" by Logan Earsey, which was published in 1915 (and which you can download and read for free, as it has entered the public domain.)
Here are a few other proofs of existence that we found:
- A mention in an article about a “Books for Soldiers” drive in the September 24, 1917 edition of The Indianapolis News
- A biographical note about Stewart Kidd, another sister bookstore in Cincinnati that was established in 1910 by W.K. Stewart and business partner John G. Kidd
- An obituary for Ella Nannette Vonnegut, W.K. Stewart’s wife, which gives a brief history of the Bobbs-Merrill Company, an Indy-based publisher established in 1845 that sold its bookstore to W.K. Stewart in 1909
- A listing from the 1917 R.L. Polk City Directory that cites the bookstore’s location as 44 E. Washington St. (on page 176)
Reader Mindy M. did some research on the bookstore for us, and the last mention she could find of it in the city directory was in 1952.
Reader Katherine H. dug up a photo of the W.K. Stewart storefront, which is the dark building next to the Thom McAn store.
This photo of the bookstore and surrounding shops on Washington Street was taken in 1939.
Photo courtesy of Bass Photo Co Collection, Indiana Historical Society
Beyond that, the (paper) trail goes cold.
Do you know anything about W.K. Stewart and what became of the company? Help us put together the pieces so we can memorialize a tidbit of Indy history.
