Colorado Authors Collection Highlights Colorado's Literary Achievements

Did you know that the Denver Public Library has been collecting the works of Colorado Authors for several decades? The result of this effort is a massive collection that houses fiction and non-fiction works by writers from, and residing in, Colorado. 

The Colorado Authors Collection covers a broad span of both time and genre. Amongst the many gems in the collection are a first edition copy of Johnny Got His Gun, by Montrose native, Dalton Trumbo; some wonderful first edition Zane Grey novels (Grey spent a great deal of time in Colorado), and much, much more. 

Of course, there's a lot more to the collection than just rare first editions and historic works. In fact, the Colorado Authors Collection is a constantly-expanding collection that includes plenty of recently published works such as, Undivided: A Muslim Daughter, Her Christian Mother and Their Path to Peace by Patricia Raybon and Alana Raybon. We even have modern non-fiction works.

​Accessing the Colorado Authors Collection

Due to the large number of rare items, the Colorado Authors Collection is housed in our closed stacks and isn't available for browsing. That said, all of the books in the collection can be accessed through our catalog and pulled out for patrons to peruse in our Mullen Reading Room. Library patrons should also be aware that circulating copies of many of these works are available for checkout.

To find out whether additional copies of a title are in the system, simply click on the Find It button on the catalog record. 

Getting Your Books in the Colorado Authors Collection

We're very interested in continuing to build the Colorado Authors Collection and are always interested in hearing from authors and writers' groups throughout the state. If you're a Colorado author with a published or soon-to-be published work, we'd love to hear from you. Same goes for Colorado writers' groups. If your members are actively publishing their works, let us know and we can see about getting them included in the collection. 

For more information about the books in the Colorado Authors Collection and how to find out about getting your works included in it, please contact Brian Trembath, Special Collections Librarian at History@DenverLibrary.org.