Helene Hanff – a love affair

Thanks to Simon at Stuck in A Book, I was reminded of my long-time love affair with Helene Hanff -a lesser-known author who has achieved cult status among bibliophiles. Ms. Hanff was a hard working writer–she wrote essays, television screen plays, magazine articles and industry trade publications –most anything to pay the rent. She was also witty, intelligent and incredibly well read. She put her love of literature, London and New York City into her wonderfully captivating writing. Her books are just plain terrific, based on her own experiences — no fiction necessary here — and none will take you long to read. I believe all are well-worth a permanent place in your personal libraries.

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Ms. Hanff (and yes she would have insisted on ‘Ms’) is most famous for her book 84 Charing Cross Road, which I have read and re-read so many times I had to buy myself a new copy. In case you don’t know of this book – it is must reading for any bibliophile. It chronicles the 20-year correspondence between Ms. Hanff and a London antique bookshop located at 84, Charing Cross Road. Ms. Hanff writes to this bookshop seeking various English literature titles in nice affordable volumes. To her delight, she receives not only affordable, but beautifully bound antique editions of her requests — “so fine they embarrass my orange-crate bookshelves”. The letters back and forth over the years are funny, warm and sometimes heartbreaking. The correspondence captures not only the shared love of literature, but family news, dental woes, wartime shortages (she sends the shop food packages during war rationing years) and finding book treasures at English estate sales. The book was made into a 1986 film which did a passable job of portraying the characters and the premise. It stars Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins so you won’t be wasting your time. Remember tingle books? 84, Charing Cross is on my top 10 list.

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The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street chronicles Ms. Hanff’s experiences in London after the publication of 84, Charing Cross Road. She finally makes her first long overdue trip to London and meets her friends from the bookshop, as well as her fans. Taken completely by surprise, Ms. Hanff and her book are
celebrities in London. Here she tells of this once-in-a-lifetime trip where she is treated to a whirlwind of introductions, dinners, teas, tours and finally seeing her precious London.

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If you’re going to New York City, live there, or just love the city from afar, you need to find yourself a copy of Letter From New York.

From the back cover: From 1978 to 1984, Hanff ( 84 Charing Cross Road ) recorded a five-minute broadcast once a month for the BBC’s Woman’s Hour about her everyday experiences as a resident of New York City.

Here you’ll meet her friends, neighbors and fellow apartment-house dwellers. She describes free concerts, out-of-the-way city parks, her favorite neighborhoods, people and dogs. This is Ms. Hanff’s New York City – sweetly old-fashioned, intimate and never pretentious.

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Ms. Hanff was unable to finish her college education, she simply ran out of money. So she decided to educate herself at the public library by working her way through English Literature A to Z. Q’s Legacy chronicles how she discovers Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch –the infamous Cambridge Dean of English Literature and his book “On the Art of Writing”. Reading “Q” spawns a long reading list which now includes English lit classics from Milton, Newman and Walton. Ms. Hanff is unable to find affordable or attractive copies in NYC bookstores. Then one day while reading The Sunday Review of Literature, she spots an advertisement for a bookshop in London …and so the story loops back to the genesis of 84, Charing Cross Road.