Telluride Literati

Telluride Literati occupies a restored Victorian storefront on Colorado Avenue in the heart of Telluride, a town wedged into a spectacular box canyon in the San Juan Mountains at an elevation of 8,750 feet. The store has been a fixture of Telluride's cultural life since 1985, predating the town's transformation from a struggling former mining camp into one of the world's premier mountain resort communities. The mountaineering literature section is outstanding, with first-person accounts of climbs on the San Juans' fourteeners alongside classics of Himalayan and Alpine literature. The Colorado mining history collection tells the story of the silver and gold rushes that built Telluride and its neighboring ghost towns, with rare photographs, geological surveys, and personal narratives from the boom years. The ski culture shelf traces the evolution of skiing from a practical means of winter transportation to the multi-billion-dollar industry that defines modern mountain towns. During the Telluride Film Festival each September, the store curates a special collection of cinema books and hosts author events that draw the festival's visiting filmmakers and celebrities. The rare books room holds first editions of mountain literature from John Muir to Jon Krakauer.