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 cites the bookstore’s location as 911 W. Washington St. — which is at odds with this post from Indiana Album, which says the bookstore was located at 44 E. Washington St.
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.
