Muddy's Chronicles: Memoirs from the Last Great Coffeehouse

Philosophical coffeehouses, those hotbeds of liberal ideas, poetry readings, strange cigarettes, and all-night jazz sessions, were a hallmark of the Beat era.

Muddy's Java Cafe hosted the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, and virtually all of Denver’s mayors and Colorado’s governors during its illustrious career. As a sometimes-halfway house for runaway teens, Muddy's was also home to jazz musicians who came and jammed after their regular gigs and a place to talk politics or Nietzsche in a convivial, relaxed atmosphere. Muddy’s was more than a coffeehouse: it was a Denver institution for nearly twenty years.

Bill Stevens has created an uproariously funny, nostalgic, and melancholy look at one of the West’s best-known java joints. Places like Muddy’s existed in large cities all across the United States, and its stories are universal.