Former Aspen mayor Bill Stirling said the steering committee for a group working to purchase and preserve Explore Booksellers, Aspen, Colo., "aims to engage residents throughout the Roaring Fork Valley in a fundraising effort," the Aspen Times reported. Stirling was married to Explore founder and longtime operator Katherine Thalberg, who died in 2006.
Owners Sam and Cheryl Wyly, who bought the store and its building in 2007, are asking $5.2 million.
The steering committee "believes it's important to make it a grassroots effort that engages people of all means," the Times noted.
"A town like Aspen without a bookstore is like a town without the Aspen Institute, almost," Stirling said, adding that the idea of preserving Explore but moving the bookstore to a different location has been rejected for several reasons, including the fact that it would diminish the Explore legacy. "Katherine Thalberg created something special," he observed.
