Wallace Kuralt, Noted North Carolina Bookseller, Dies

Longtime North Carolina bookseller Wallace Kuralt died on Saturday, December 13, in Fort Myers Beach, Florida. Kuralt, brother of the late CBS journalist Charles Kuralt, had been treated for Merkel cell carcinoma, a skin cancer, for nearly two years, as reported by the Raleigh News & Observer. He was 64.

In 1964, Kuralt, a North Carolina native, and his wife, Brenda, purchased the Intimate Bookshop of Chapel Hill. The store, an established Chapel Hill presence, grew under Kuralt's direction, and, at one time, the business included nine stores in the state.

"Wallace was a renaissance man. He was articulate and artistic and funny, very kind and very interested in people. He was a man who could do just about anything," said Barbara Svenson, who with her husband ran an Intimate Bookshop in Charlotte for 28 years, as reported by the News & Observer.

The stores faced a number of challenges in the 1990s, and the last Intimate Bookshop closed in Chapel Hill in 1999, after which the Kuralts opened Past Perfect Antiques and Memorabilia in Pittsboro, as reported by the News & Observer. After closing his last bookstore, Kuralt was engaged in antitrust litigation against the major chain bookstores. A judge in the Southern District of New York ruled in favor of the book chains on September 30. Kuralt's attorneys filed notice on October 29 that an appeal was planned, as reported by AP.

Survivors include his wife; three sons, Justin Kuralt of Charlotte, Charles Bishop Kuralt II of Durham, and Wallace Hamilton Kuralt III of Washington; a daughter, Mary-Catherine Smith of Durham; a sister, Catherine Harris of Bainbridge Island, Washington; and seven grandchildren. A memorial service is scheduled for Friday, December 19, in Chapel Hill.