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.