Stephen Cogil Casari, founder of Denver’s fabled Tattered Cover Book Store and the agent who shepherded Norman Maclean’s “A River Runs Through It” to publication, died Sept. 15 in Grand Rapids, Mich., due to complications from cancer.
He was 66.
A Denver native, he started in the book business at the Old Corner Bookstore in Boston, but quickly returned home and in 1970 opened a 950-square-foot, hole-in-the-wall shop on Second Avenue in Cherry Creek. Almost 45 years later, the Tattered Cover remains one of the most successful independent bookstores in the country.
“He was certainly a superb bookman,” said Joyce Meskis, who bought the Tattered Cover from Cogil Casari in 1974. “And he had a great love for the book industry, to which he devoted the rest of his professional life.”
Though the store blossomed and expanded to other parts of the city after he sold it to Meskis, he always had a lot of pride when talking about founding the store, said his former wife, Christine Cogil Casari.
“The Tattered Cover was always a huge part of his life. He was certainly most proud of that,” she said. “He was always very proud of what Joyce did.”
Cogil Casari was known for his ability to discuss any book on his shelves with anyone who came into the store with a question.
“He was a genius bookman,” said Denver lawyer Frank Culkin, who met Cogil Casari at Tattered Cover when he inquired about a book on skiing. “It was a tiny bookstore and he — by his own admission — had read every book in the store.”
They remained friends for years, and Culkin represented Cogil Casari during the final parts of the sale of the store to Meskis.
After the sale, Cogil Casari moved to Chicago, where he was an owner of the 22-store Book Market chain that sold to Walden Books in the 1980s. He then became a retail consultant, helping coach bookstore owners.
In addition to his former wife, Cogil Casari is survived by stepdaughters Heather Ireland and Rebecca Ross and grandchildren Nicholas Ross and Stella and Rowan Ireland.
Joe Vaccarelli: 303-954-2396, jvaccarelli@ denverpost.com, and twitter.com/joe_vacc
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