Maria at her booksigning at Explore
Growing up in LA, I went to grade school with the Anderson girls. (Celebrities to us, not because their mother, Katherine, was the daughter of Hollywood’s first celebrity couple, Irving Thalberg & Norma Sheerer, but because their father, Richard Anderson, played Oscar Goldman on The Six Million Dollar Man.) Katherine and Richard divorced; Katherine and her daughters moved to Aspen. She reported back that it was a jewel of a place and that she had opened a bookstore. My parents brought us to Aspen for the summer. We stayed for the school year. We never left.
Katherine Thalberg opened Explore Book Sellers in the early seventies in a rambling old Victorian on Hopkins Street and eventually moved it to a larger and even more rambling old Victorian on Main Street. Vivaldi, black-and-white triangular bookmarks, butterscotch candy by the register, tiny room-after-room so precariously crammed with books that you had to remove your parka and backpack to avoiding setting off an avalanche…. And, of course, Katherine, the handsome and serious owner behind the counter, peeking up from her glasses.
I spent lots of time at Explore. One of my favorite things was going to the fiction section, to the S’s, to imagine where my future novel would be shelved. Between JD Salinger and Mary Shelly? Between Sir Walter Scott and Upton Sinclair? Between James Salter and Robert Louis Stevenson?
In Aspen you know what kind of skiers people are. Katherine Thalberg had the best posture of any skier I had ever seen, and perfect form to match. That was Katherine: elegant, contained, formidable. She grew increasingly vocal about animal rights and added a vegetarian café to the upstairs of the book store. She married the mayor, Bill Stirling, who shared her passion for reading and animals. He almost got recalled when he and Katherine tried to ban the selling of fur in Aspen.
Long after I moved away, I got word that Katherine had passed away after a fight against cancer. Explore was put up for sale. There was talk that it would go out of business. Sam Wyly, the swift boat guy, ended up buying it. People in Aspen have strong feelings about that. I’m happy he did.
I love coming back to Aspen, and frequently do. Within twenty-four hours, I’m back at Explore. I dump my coat and backpack at the front door. Vivaldi plays. The black-and-white bookmarks are stacked on the front counter. Mayor Bill is introducing an author in the back room. Lynda and Dan, the new managers, both friends of mine, call out “Welcome back!” and are eager to catch up. But first, I go to the fiction room, the S’s. There it is, THIS ONE IS MINE, b
y Maria Semple. Between Will Self and Vikram Seth.
Katherine would have been proud.
Explore Book Sellers
221 East Main Street
Aspen, CO 81611
P. 970.925.5336
P. 800.562.READ (7323)
Tags: Aspen, Aspen bookstore, bookstore, Colorado, Colorado bookstore
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