Owner Of Denver's Beloved Tattered Cover Bookstore Retiring

DENVER (AP) — The longtime owner of Denver's beloved Tattered Cover bookstores is retiring and her successors are two prominent industry figures.

According to a Tattered Cover statement Thursday, Len Vlahos and his wife Kristen Gilligan are moving to Denver from Stamford, Conn. and over the next two years will take control of the business Joyce Meskis has owned since 1974.

Under Meskis, Tattered Cover grew from one outlet to four. It has hosted such authors as Joyce Carol Oates and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Vlahos is an author, executive director of the Book Industry Study Group, a national non-profit that supports the book publishing industry, and former chief operating officer of the American Booksellers Association. Gilligan had been an ABA official and worked on projects for the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression.

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