Ken Sanders Rare Books is a full service antiquarian bookshop (opened with his daughter Melissa in 1997)   located just off Broadway in downtown Salt Lake City celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2007.  Over 50 writers, photographers, artists, poets and other creative types visited the shop in September for various anniversary events.

Proprietor Sanders, 55, has been buying, selling and collecting quaint and curious volumes of lore since his childhood. He formerly co-owned and ran the legendary Cosmic Aeroplane Bookstore in the 1970s and founded  Dream Garden Press in 1980, which publishes the R. Crumb illustrated edition of the Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey.

The 4,000 square foot bookshop specializes in works on Utah and the Mormons, the exploration and discovery of the American West with a special emphasis on The Grand Canyon and the Colorado River, Yellowstone and other national parks and wilderness areas, along with antique maps, vintage photography, postcards and all kinds of ephemera.

Ken Sanders Rare Books specializes in Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, B. Traven and   authors of the literary west. They have large holdings of modern first editions, including autographed copies, along with rare and collectible books in many fields: art, photography, children’s and illustrated books, sets and leather bound books. First time visitors are always surprised by the quality, depth and diversity of our holdings.  Serious collectors and casual browsers often treat the bookshop as a museum, and browsing is encouraged.

Ken Sanders Rare Books regularly features art & photography exhibitions for the monthly gallery stroll, hosts book publication parties for authors, and has a regular series of poetry readings.  A diverse and varied clientele are known to inhabit the bookshop premises.  You never know whom you might encounter. Previous exhibitions have included Leia Bell, Scott Carrier, Trent Harris, Diane Orr, Anna Campbell Bliss, Carel Peter Brest Van Kempen, Trent Call, Sri Whipple, The Salt Lake Sixties,  Mark & Caralyn Buehner, Mark Knudsen, Edward Bateman, R.P. Bissland, Everett Ruess, Charles Savage,  and dozens of others.

Literary & poetry  readings, music  and  other engagements have included the likes of:  Gary Snyder, Charles Bowden, Doug Peacock, Rick Bass, Scott Carrier, Alex Caldiero, Trent Harris, Joanne Kyger, Anne Waldman, Ed McClanahan, Melissa Bond, Sara Caldiero, Andy Hoffmann, Renny Russell, Martin Vest, Limberlost Press, Rosalie Sorrels, Utah Phillips, Deseret String Band, Greg Keeler, Gentry Densely, SLAJO, Gino Sky, Sandy Anderson, Bruce Fowler, and hundreds of others.

Sanders has been a featured appraiser on the popular PBS series The Antiques Road Show for the past two seasons.  He has been involved in the new, used and antiquarian book business for over forty years, beginning in the late 1950s & 60s by selling comic books in grade school and science fiction in Junior High School.  By high school he was running his own mail order business "The Dream Garden", which became his small press publishing arm in 1980.  Dream Garden Press has published the R. Crumb illustrated edition of Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang, Mondo Utah by Trent Harris, Beer in the Beehive by Del Vance, and numerous other books over the decades.

Sanders created the legendary Cosmic Aeroplane Bookstore on first south (old film row) in the 1970s and received the mayor's award for contribution to the arts in 2005.