Moonlight Over Pearl: Ten Stories from Aspen

These ten stories, Paul Andersen has explored and revealed so much of Aspen-and done it so well-and somehow managed to do it without ever touching on the "glitz," the glamour, or the billionaires.Paul knows the Aspen that is home to true mountaineers, alpine adventurers who put themselves at mortal risk to get close to the reality of life itself. He also knows the overlapping group of hard-core mountain crazies, who may not dream of conquering Everest, but who push their personal limits relentlessly, just for the sheer hell of it.And he knows well how these mountain adventures can turn in an instant to life and death drama.But, tellingly, Paul also knows the Aspen that is home to the Aspen Music Festival. He paints this aspect of Aspen with real feeling and emotional depth-with understanding of the truer stakes of the artistic life-in one magnificent story.And then, again, his focus can encompass the intellectual side of Aspen on display at the executive seminars of the Aspen Institute, in which minds, assumptions and lives are challenged-and may or may not actually change. Paul's stories are tied together by the thread of Walter Paepcke's "Aspen Idea," which makes the town a unique place to sustain the body, mind and spirit. That thread runs through these stories.But, even more, these ten fine stories are an exploration of Aspen's character, defined by a sense of adventure and daring that includes a willingness to face failure and even death. It's a wonderfully written portrait of an extraordinary town over the course of more than a century.

About the Author :
Paul Andersen has been a writer for 45 years. He has written fifteen books and hundreds of feature articles for regional magazines. He has been a reporter, editor, regular columnist and contributing writer with the Aspen Times for 36 years.Paul's writing career has earned him credits as a television scriptwriter for ESPN and screenwriter for an IMAX film. He has authored a dozen books on regional history and a collection of fiction short stories, Moonlight Over Pearl. In 2015, his book, High Road to Aspen (2014) won the Colorado Book Award's Gold Medal.In 2005, Andersen co-created Nature & Society, an executive seminar for the Aspen Institute that immerses participants in wilderness while exploring philosophical, literary and historical perspectives on man and nature.In 2013, Paul founded Huts For Vets, a non-profit designed to offer veterans healing opportunities in the wilderness at the 10th Mountain Huts of Aspen. With a context of philosophical readings, veterans find solace from psycho-emotional trauma, post- traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury and military sexual trauma.Paul leads wilderness hikes, culture tours, and moderates the Great Books seminar series for the Aspen Institute. He enjoys reading philosophy and literature, writing poetry and playing guitar, piano and drums. He hikes, skis and bikes the mountains and deserts of the American West and beyond. Self-supported bicycle tours have led him across Europe, Eurasia and the Middle East.Andersen was born in Chicago in 1951. He grew up in suburban Glenview, graduated New Trier High School in 1969, and earned a BA degree from Western Colorado University. Paul lives at Seven Castles in the Frying Pan Valley, 25 miles from Aspen, with his psychotherapist wife, Lu Krueger-Andersen. Their son, Tait, and his wife, Sarah, live nearby in Basalt Curt Carpenter has been an artist and designer in Aspen, Colorado since 1979. Know for elegant and thoughtful illustration, graphic design, typography, book design, cartography, and logos.Curt's hand-printed woodcuts have been recognized with an Aspen Art Museum Fellowship, a Juror's Choice Award from the Arvada Center for the Arts, inclusion in the Rocky Mountain Biennial, Fort Collins, CO, and a recent commission for 26 woodcuts for the Residences at The Little Nell in Aspen.Curt's design of "High Road to Aspen" with writer Paul Andersen and photographer David Hiser won the Pictorial Book of the Year from Colorado Humanities.