{"id":63133,"date":"2022-04-21T19:24:29","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T01:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=63133"},"modified":"2022-04-21T13:50:17","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T19:50:17","slug":"ken-sanders-library-belongs-in-a-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/ken-sanders-library-belongs-in-a-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken Sanders’ Library Belongs in a Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ken Sanders in the 200 East location of Ken Sanders Rare Books<\/p><\/div>\n

Ken Sanders has been dealing knowledgeably in antiquarian books for half a century. (That\u2019s why he has appeared on \u201cAntiques Roadshow\u201d on PBS for the past 17 years.) His downtown bookstore, at 268 S. 200 East, where Sanders has been located for 25 years, is treasured by aficionados from coast to coast for its rare and used books \u2014 but it will be replaced in a year or so, likely by yet another high-rise condo building.<\/h4>\n

And Ken? Well, he seems to have earned the title of \u201crelic\u201d after all this time: He and his books are moving into a museum \u2014 The Leonardo, a science and technology institution at the corner of 200 East and 500 South, just two blocks from his present location. The move is underway, the new bookstore has a fresh coat of paint, a few paintings, rugs and even a couple of maps from the current store. But if all goes as planned, you will have TWO Ken Sanders Rare Books to shop at this year. Both locations will be open for your browsing pleasure through 2022.<\/h4>\n
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You will recognize KSRB’s 200 East location by the art and messages on the brick building’s exterior.<\/p><\/div>\n

Don\u2019t miss your chance to visit the 4,000-square-foot 2nd East and 2nd South store, if you haven\u2019t yet been there. In addition to used, rare, and a few new books (and a fabulous children\u2019s section), you will find art, ephemera, maps, photography and old, dreamy postcards \u2014 along with merchandise relating to Edward Abbey\u2019s The Monkey Wrench Gang<\/em>.<\/h4>\n

There\u2019s a contest going on to name the new Children\u2019s Reading Area in The Leonardo, which they hope to open in May: a hundred-buck KSRB gift certificate for the best name. Email your ideas to: books@kensandersbooks.com.<\/h4>\n

Ken and I both started at Sam Weller\u2019s bookstore in 1970 when we were just kids. You wouldn’t have recognized him. He lacked his famous beard then and had very short hair. He took to book dealing instantly and would remain in the business in some capacity for the rest of his life. Sanders says, \u201cAs I like to tell the story, between 1970-1975 Sam hired me five times and fired me 10 times.\u201d (There was always much shouting on the bookstore mezzanine when Ken returned from one of his buying trips to SoCal.) Sanders went on to create the famed (or infamous) Cosmic Aeroplane Books with Steve Jones and Bruce Roberts in 1975-76. \u201c(Artist) Lucy Fairchild was my first employee and worked out of my old westside house,\u201d Sanders recalls. \u201cI founded Dream Garden Press in 1980 and mostly did publishing in that decade. I got back into used and rare books full time in 1990 and Melissa [his daughter] and I opened the downtown shop in 1997. Twenty-five years later, we are moving into The Leonardo,\u201d says Sanders.<\/h4>\n
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Ken Sanders, who has red sand running in his veins, in an advertisement for a river running trip with singer\/songwriter Kate MacLeod<\/p><\/div>\n

Currently there is a KSRB section on the main floor at the Leonardo. \u201cWe will be taking over more square footage as our move transpires. Now the real work begins, as we need to design and build our presence at the Leo, including shelving, chairs, desks, fixtures, and equipment. There will be a 1,600-square-foot bookshop on the main floor. We will need to imagine and design a used-book section in a 2,000-square-foot space of the downstairs, and there will be a large rare-books room in the heart of the building,\u201d Sanders explains.<\/h4>\n

There\u2019s a Go Fund Me<\/a> in progress to help with the transition to The Leonardo. Your muscles will be required for moving books, as well. Sanders sends out weekly email updates<\/a> if you are on the store\u2019s mailing list, along with other interesting observations. He is as good a writer as he is a storyteller and that\u2019s saying a lot.<\/h4>\n

Ken\u2019s father, Stan Sanders, was \u201cthe black hole of Utah collecting,\u201d says his son. He collected all sorts of historical things, including bottles and postcards. It is likely Ken got his taste for gathering books, maps, photographs, art and all the various other things you will find in his bookstore from Stan Sanders. Ken has donated numerous historically important postcards to the U of U\u2019s Marriott Library and to the LDS Church History Department.<\/h4>\n

The Leonardo<\/a>, once home to the Salt Lake City Public Library, opened as a nonprofit museum in 2011. Its mission is to \u201cfuse science, technology, and art in experiences that inspire creativity and innovation in people of all ages and backgrounds.\u201d<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ken Sanders has been dealing knowledgeably in antiquarian books for half a century. (That\u2019s why he has appeared on \u201cAntiques Roadshow\u201d on PBS for the past 17 years.) His downtown bookstore, at 268 S. 200 East, where Sanders has been located for 25 years, is treasured by aficionados […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":844,"featured_media":63136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[826],"class_list":["post-63133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literary-arts","tag-ken-sanders"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Ken-Standing.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-29 12:25:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/844"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63133"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63141,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63133\/revisions\/63141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}