84, Charing Cross Road

Hanff, Helene

ISBN 10: 0670290742 / ISBN 13: 9780670290741

Published by Grossman Publishers, New York, NY, 1975

About this Item

Blue leatherette binding lightly rubbed at extremities; former owner's name written in black ink on front free endpaper; light foxing on leaf edges; faux leather on top edge of front board appears to have repaired professionally or by the publisher -- the book is otherwise very good. Dust jacket lightly rubbed at extremities, price-clipped, now protected in clear mylar cover. A nice copy. ; Gilt lettering on front cover and spine; signed by author in blue ink on half-title page. Scarce.; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 97 pages; Signed by Author.

Seller Inventory # 55399

Bibliographic Details

• Title: 84, Charing Cross Road
• Publisher: Grossman Publishers, New York, NY
• Publication Date: 1975
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0670290742
• ISBN 13: 9780670290741
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: Deluxe Gift Edition.
• Condition: Very Good-
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good+
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

A dramatization of the American Helene Hanff's 20-year correspondence with a London antiquarian bookshop. Also on this cassette is a witty duologue between a elderly general and his wife, played by John Mills and Peggy Ashcroft.

Review

84, Charing Cross Road is a charming record of bibliophilia, cultural difference, and imaginative sympathy. For 20 years, an outspoken New York writer and a rather more restrained London bookseller carried on an increasingly touching correspondence. In her first letter to Marks & Co., Helene Hanff encloses a wish list, but warns, "The phrase 'antiquarian booksellers' scares me somewhat, as I equate 'antique' with expensive." Twenty days later, on October 25, 1949, a correspondent identified only as FPD let Hanff know that works by Hazlitt and Robert Louis Stevenson would be coming under separate cover. When they arrive, Hanff is ecstatic--but unsure she'll ever conquer "bilingual arithmetic." By early December 1949, Hanff is suddenly worried that the six-pound ham she's sent off to augment British rations will arrive in a kosher office. But only when FPD turns out to have an actual name, Frank Doel, does the real fun begin.

Two years later, Hanff is outraged that Marks & Co. has dared to send an abridged Pepys diary. "i enclose two limp singles, i will make do with this thing till you find me a real Pepys. THEN i will rip up this ersatz book, page by page, AND WRAP THINGS IN IT." Nonetheless, her postscript asks whether they want fresh or powdered eggs for Christmas. Soon they're sharing news of Frank's family and Hanff's career. No doubt their letters would have continued, but in 1969, the firm's secretary informed her that Frank Doel had died. In the collection's penultimate entry, Helene Hanff urges a tourist friend, "If you happen to pass by 84, Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me. I owe it so much."