Hi Louisville, Editor Declan here. I don’t know about you, but I always love hearing Louisville mentioned in media, whether it’s a passing reference in a TV show or a random line in a book. The latter is what I found when reading Kurt Vonnegut’s 1997 novel “Timequake,” which contains two references to a relative of Vonnegut’s named Kerfuit Stewart running a bookstore here in Derby City.
If you’ve read “Timequake,” you’ll understand my trepidation in believing that such a person ever existed — the book wavers between fiction and non so much that you really feel like you’ve been through a timequake yourself. But a bit of research — and some help from readers like you — helped me discover that a Kerfoot Stewart really did live here in Louisville, really did run a bookstore, and really was a relative of Indianapolis’s own Kurt Vonnegut.
William Kerfoot Stewart, born in 1875 in Marion, Indiana, married Ella Nannette Vonnegut in 1903. Ella Nannette, born in 1879 also in Marion, had a first cousin once removed named Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (that’s the famous one). Both William Kerfoot and Ella Nannette died in Louisville, but are buried in Indianapolis.
According to a 1999 column in the Courier Journal by Bob Hill, W.K. Stewart opened in Louisville in 1917 on 4th Street. Stewart operated it until his death in 1959, but the business remained in that building until 1975.
W. K. Stewart reopened in Holiday Manor and was bought by Barbara Hendricks in 1982. She ran the store for over a decade, expanding its footprint and adding extra inventory beyond just books. According to the column, a sign hung over the counter at the 1999 closing that read “30-75% off all items except Beanie Babies.”
So there you have it: The “Kerfuit” referenced in “Timequake” was a real person who operated a bookstore here in town.
When I first asked the LOUtoday readership about the store, I received several impassioned testimonies from readers who remember shopping there in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. I’ll be sharing some of those with you in a future newsletter, so stay tuned.
But the story doesn’t end there — there was also a W. K. Stewart in Indianapolis. I’m still trying to decipher how Stewart inherited the business from his father (also named William Kerfoot). In “Timequake,” Vonnegut says the store never carried his books because they “found his language obscene.” Was this true? Did Vonnegut ever visit the store at either location? These questions will have to wait for another day.
If you have any memories, information, or general musings on W. K. Stewart please write to me and let me know.
