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Charing Cross Road 84

Helene Hanff,

Barbara van Kooten (Translator)

4.14 · Rating details · 64,189 ratings · 9,822 reviews

Een vriendschap in brieven tussen Helene Hanff uit New York en de medewerkers van Marks & Co, een antiquarische boekhandel op Charing Cross Road 84 in Londen.

In de late jaren '40 van de twintigste eeuw leest Helene Hanff een advertentie waarin staat dat de Londense boekhandel Marks & Co gespecialiseerd is in boeken die niet meer in druk zijn. Alles wat zij zou willen hebbe ...more

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Hardcover, 136 pages

Published December 2015 by Rainbow (first published January 1st 1970)

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Feb 13, 2009 Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: five-star-nonfiction, nonfiction, booky-books

"If you happen to pass by 84 Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me? I owe it so much."

This was my second reading of the book, and I'm adding a star to my original rating. I laughed a lot harder this time, and even got a little choked up near the end. I don't recall this much chortling, cackling, guffawing and snorting on my first time through. The contrast between Helene Hanff's brash American informality and Frank Doel's staid British professionalism is delightful. There's a certain charm in his p ...more

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Apr 20, 2016 Brina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: letters, novella

As a child, I loved writing to pen pals. Anywhere I went that offered a chance to sign up to be a pen pal, I did with earnest. None of the pen pals ended up amounting to much, but it was thrilling to receive letters from them in the mail. I come from a line of pen pal writers as my mother wrote to an English girl her age for her entire childhood and teenaged years. It is not surprising then, that I one of the first books I reviewed on goodreads was Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal's Journey fro As a child, I loved writing to pen pals. Anywhere I went that offered a chance to sign up to be a pen pal, I did with earnest. None of the pen pals ended up amounting to much, but it was thrilling to receive letters from them in the mail. I come from a line of pen pal writers as my mother wrote to an English girl her age for her entire childhood and teenaged years. It is not surprising then, that I one of the first books I reviewed on goodreads was Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal's Journey from Down Under to All Over by Geraldine Brooks, where Brooks details her own experiences with pen pals, one that eventually lead her to move to the United States and a career in writing. It comes of less of a surprise that I would be lead to 84, Charing Cross Road, a short book of correspondence by former television writer Helene Hanff. A proclaimed Anglophile who wrote to employees of the Marks and Company Book Shop in London over a twenty year period, Hanff published her letters in book form as a gift to future readers and letter writers.

Helene Hanff is enamored by out of print, hard to find British literature. The only location close to her where she is able to obtain any just to look at is at the main branch of the New York City Public Library. Yet, that library is 50 blocks from her home and most of the time she is unable to bring the books she finds back to her apartment. The books she can read are new and do not have a history behind them. By chance, Hanff's upstairs neighbors are British, and they give her the name of Marks and Co. Starting in 1949, Hanff begins writing to Marks' employees requesting new or slightly used second hand copies of all things British, everything from Chaucer to Austen and all rare books in between. While Hanff has got to pay for the air mail and shipping fees, she is happy to do so as it opens a new world of books to her. What started as an enquiry becomes a twenty year correspondence with employees at the shop.

The main pen pal Hanff wrote to was an employee named Frank Doel. In time, she also wrote to his wife and neighbor as well as other employees at Marks and Company. At first they referred to each other by names of ma'am and sir, but gradually they grew to use familiar names Helene and Frank. Engaging in intelligent conversations about books and about their lives, Hanff became emotionally invested in the lives of the Marks and Company family. Each year she would send the staff gifts of hard to find rationed items as meats, eggs, sugar, and nylon stockings. For this, they were forever grateful, going out of their way to send Hanff any book she requested, even an extremely rare copy of the Complete Works of John Donne. While money did not allow her to travel, Hanff had an open invitation to visit London and stay as a guest of any of the shop employees. What had started as a simple letter morphed into a lifelong friendship.

The correspondence that Helene Hanff engaged in seemed as a precursor to goodreads as she discussed books with otherwise strangers on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Finding like minded readers from all over the world is one of the things I enjoy the most about goodreads, so I was drawn to Hanff and her quest to obtain British literature. Even though she was unable to visit London, Hanff's sincere writing left me with a smile as I envisioned her thrill of opening the letters and packages that emerged from a simple correspondence. With the majority of correspondence now done electronically, letter writing has become a lost art. Hanff's letters to Doel took me back to a simpler time, and that their relationship centered on books was only an added bonus.

4+ stars
...more

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Mar 27, 2022 Lisa of Troy rated it liked it · review of another edition

84, Charing Cross Road is a book which contains selected correspondence between a New York book lover in New York City (Helene Hanff) and a used bookseller in London (Frank Doel). The correspondence starts in 1949 and lasts for 20 years.

This book started off strongly as the reader is a voyeur into the lives of Helene Hanff and Frank Doel. The love and enthusiasm that Helene Hanff oozes for literature is almost palpable and highly contagious. She also tries to help her favorite British bookstore. ...more

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Oct 24, 2015 Glenn Sumi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: contemp-classics, non-fiction, books-about-books, favorites

After hearing about this book for years, I finally stumbled upon a $2 ex-libris copy earlier this week at a used book sale. And without pausing I bought it. How appropriate!

It consists of the correspondence, from the late 1940s until the late 1960s, between New York writer and bibliophile Helene Hanff and Frank Doel, an employee at Marks & Co. Booksellers at the eponymous address in London.

Hanff was a voracious, eclectic reader who couldn’t find good American editions of the books she wanted t After hearing about this book for years, I finally stumbled upon a $2 ex-libris copy earlier this week at a used book sale. And without pausing I bought it. How appropriate!

It consists of the correspondence, from the late 1940s until the late 1960s, between New York writer and bibliophile Helene Hanff and Frank Doel, an employee at Marks & Co. Booksellers at the eponymous address in London.

Hanff was a voracious, eclectic reader who couldn’t find good American editions of the books she wanted to read. Responding to an advertisement in a periodical, she wrote to Marks & Co., and began her two decades-long epistolary relationship with Doel.

Her chatty, witty and often teasing letters requesting books and Frank’s more conservative, straightlaced missives form the backbone of the work. As their long-distance, customer-bookseller relationship evolves, Hanff occasionally writes to other store employees, as well as Doel’s wife, the couple’s daughters and the family’s elderly neighbour.

What gradually emerges is a gentle and moving look at two kindred spirits united by their love of the printed word. Hanff’s descriptions of the physical books are so vivid you can practically smell and feel the sturdy covers and the thick, creamy pages. The book also touches on their differing cultures, Hanff’s writing characterized by frank forthrightness, Doel’s, although no less friendly, by a certain civility and politeness.

Their correspondence isn’t just about books, although there are some amusing, illuminating passages about Chaucer, Samuel Pepys, Jane Austen, John Donne and Laurence Sterne. Early on, Hanff also sends care packages of food and stockings to the bookstore, much-needed in a time of post-World War II rationing.

And there are subtle glimpses into history and the changing nature of society: bookstore employees emigrate to other countries to try their luck; the Doels save up money to buy their first used car; Queen Elizabeth II is crowned; Beatlemania descends on London.

But what I love most of all is the portrait that emerges of Hanff herself. A strong and independent single woman who would rather send cash in the mail than fuss with getting a money order, she starts out living in a tiny, cramped apartment and works her way up the publishing and radio drama worlds, drawing on much of her reading of literature (thanks to the packages from 84, Charing Cross Road) to create her plays.

What I also admire is how uncluttered this book is. There were other letters, but Hanff trusts the reader to do the work to connect the dots. By reading a “reply” we can intuit what’s being replied to. There are no baggy, self-important, italicized passages about what’s in the letters themselves. And the graceful ending is stunning in its understatement.

One more thought: Hanff and Doel’s comments about books and literature remind me of the Goodreads community I’ve found here. I likely will never meet (IRL as they say) the people whose reviews and updates I like and comment on, but that doesn’t mean our interactions aren’t profound, meaningful and lasting.

This is a book, for and about book lovers, to cherish. ...more

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Nov 15, 2019 Olive Fellows (abookolive) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-about-books, favorites-all-time, favorites-2019

Click here to hear my thoughts on Helene Hanff, this book, and all her other books over on my Booktube channel, abookolive!

First read in November 2019. Reread on New Year's Day 2021 and loved it even more than the first time I read it! 😭❤ ...more

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Aug 21, 2017 Luffy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: page-turner, superb-characterization, 5-star, non-fiction, popular

The epistolary meanderings of Helene Hanff and Frank Dole are insightful, playful in their coyness, and progressive in their development. This is an actual correspondence gone awfully right.

There is a starkness of honesty in this correspondence. Yet the prose in the letters aren't quite as dry as might be feared. Like I said, the back and forth is progressive. There is definitely life in these letters.

This real occurrence happens after the second world war(the last three words of which is a fav ...more

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Sep 24, 2021 Regina rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I often jump straight to the down and dirty of a book, but please allow me to shake things up by presenting the lithe and lovely.

- 84, Charing Cross Road is an absolutely delightful epistolary memoir made up of letters exchanged between NYC-based author Helene Hanff and an antiquarian bookseller in London.

- It was published in 1970 and contains twenty years of correspondence that began in 1949 - a time when London was still dealing with post-war rationing and, to state the obvious, the internet ...more

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Nov 17, 2017 Angela M rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Letters, literature, friendships, kindness and humor fill the pages of this small volume. It's a gift from Helene Hanff to anyone who loves books. Not much more I can say except that all book lovers should read it .

Long distance friendships and books - a lot like Goodreads . ...more

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Mar 26, 2022 Julie G rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: new-york-state-of-mind, 70-from-the-70s, the-british-invasion, that-70s-show, writers-on-writing

Interestingly, I have just read two books in a row for my 1970s reading project that were published in the 1970s, but took place at an earlier time. It feels, to me, a little bit like cheating, but they were popular books in the 70s, regardless, so here I am, reviewing another one (accidentally).

And, fittingly, this non-fiction story, compiled like an epistolary novel, reminded me of a memory I have from the early-mid 1980s, so let me misbehave, for a moment, and cheat on my beloved 70s with ano Interestingly, I have just read two books in a row for my 1970s reading project that were published in the 1970s, but took place at an earlier time. It feels, to me, a little bit like cheating, but they were popular books in the 70s, regardless, so here I am, reviewing another one (accidentally).

And, fittingly, this non-fiction story, compiled like an epistolary novel, reminded me of a memory I have from the early-mid 1980s, so let me misbehave, for a moment, and cheat on my beloved 70s with another decade.

This book reminded me of a period of time in my life when I was babysitting, every Saturday night, for a gorgeous college professor and her husband (old what's-his-name). I was a young teen, and, after the kids would go to bed, I'd pull a book down from their fabulous home library, put on some soft porn from HBO in the background (this house is the setting for another review of mine: Wise Blood ) and then creep into their kitchen for my one weekly indulgence: an Entenmann's chocolate doughnut.

Back at my own house, my mother was a combination of Twiggy mixed with Jane Fonda and we had fat-free bodies and a sugar-free household for all of the 1970s and 1980s. (And then therapy for the next 20 years).

So. . . around 10pm every Saturday night for about two years, I would defy our household rules (because I wasn't home, duh), and I would take one perfectly formed chocolate doughnut and hold it out before me like the Holy Grail, then place it reverently on one perfectly formed white napkin and appreciate the yin/yang duality of my life before tearing into that treat in the den like a barnyard animal.

The sugar and fat would rush my senses while inappropriate scenes from movies like “Porky's” played on in the background and I would discover my next precious read.

Remembering those Saturday nights fills me with nostalgia. I had no idea I was having that much fun at the time, but I know it now.

Sometimes we don't know how special something is, until it's over. We hope, when we remember, that we have visuals, letters. We hope that someone else remembers, too. ...more

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Apr 24, 2022 Tina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: hoopla-audiobooks, short-stories, audio-books

I've always adored this movie so I decided to listen to the short audio. It was such a delight!

A book that was originally published in 1970 about a twenty year letter correspondence (1949-1969) that turned into a sweet friendship.

Helene Hanff lives in New York City and is a writer and lover of old, out of print books. She contacts Marks & Co. an antique bookshop in London about a book she is looking for. The head buyer, Frank Doel responds and sends her the book. They begin to correspond and Hel ...more

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Jun 21, 2022 Candi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-i-own, classics-shelf, non-fiction

It’s about time I finally cracked this charming little book open. I’ve had it sitting on the nightstand for nearly a decade. A tribute to bookstores, booklovers, and England, this epistolary novel delivered exactly what I expected it to! If Goodreads hadn’t already confirmed what I suspected, namely that I’m not the only soul in the world with a book reading and book collecting obsession, then Helene Hanff’s experience would have offered the proof I needed. Her letters written from a small apart It’s about time I finally cracked this charming little book open. I’ve had it sitting on the nightstand for nearly a decade. A tribute to bookstores, booklovers, and England, this epistolary novel delivered exactly what I expected it to! If Goodreads hadn’t already confirmed what I suspected, namely that I’m not the only soul in the world with a book reading and book collecting obsession, then Helene Hanff’s experience would have offered the proof I needed. Her letters written from a small apartment in New York City to Frank, a used bookshop dealer in London, were a pleasure to read.

“’You and your Olde English books!’ You see how it is, Frankie, you’re the only soul alive who understands me.”

Likely, you won’t be surprised to learn that secondhand bookstores are one of my most treasured places on earth to visit. Immediately after checking into a hotel in whatever town or city I’ve landed, I will set the suitcase down, connect to the WiFi, and search the internet for restaurants and local used bookshops. I don’t usually show up with a plan in mind, but instead spend hours scouring the shelves for special finds. I love thinking about all the other readers that have previously held these books in their hands. Did they like the book but not well enough to keep it at home on that favorites shelf? Did he or she pass away years before and not have a book-loving friend or relative to hand the books down to? Or maybe this fellow bookworm simply ran out of space or packed up, moved, and decided to share a beloved book with some stranger in the future that will connect to him or her by some invisible thread.

“I love inscriptions on flyleaves and notes in margins, I like the comradely sense of turning pages someone else turned, and reading passages some one long gone has called my attention to.”

I’m pleased to finally say I can move this book from the nightstand to the “keepers” shelf. I’m just a bit sorry that it ended all too soon. I could have kept reading about Helene and Frank for days yet. This little gem also serves as a reminder to not put off until tomorrow what you’d love to do today. Time is shorter than we imagine, and the people we wish to meet and the places we yearn to visit are waiting for us. The time is now!

“Please write and tell me about London, I live for the day when I step off the boat-train and feel its dirty sidewalks under my feet. I want to walk up Berkeley Square and down Wimpole Street and stand in St. Paul’s where John Donne preached and sit on the step Elizabeth sat on when she refused to enter the Tower, and like that. A newspaper man I know, who was stationed in London during the war says tourists go to England with preconceived notions, so they always find exactly what they are looking for. I told him I’d go looking for the England of English literature, and he said ‘Then it’s there.’”
...more

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Apr 20, 2022 ©hrissie ❁ [on studying hiatus till June] rated it really liked it · review of another edition

There is something about a letter correspondence between two book lovers that never gets old. My heart, wistfully content and overflowing upon reading 84, Charing Cross Road, testifies to this.

Texting and emailing these days - it is just different, isn't it? The corporate, capitalistic, hypertech world we live in has, in some respects, sucked aliveness out of the things it promises to enhance: networking and uninterrupted presence.

This is not to say that Hanff's letter assemblage necessarily mak There is something about a letter correspondence between two book lovers that never gets old. My heart, wistfully content and overflowing upon reading 84, Charing Cross Road, testifies to this.

Texting and emailing these days - it is just different, isn't it? The corporate, capitalistic, hypertech world we live in has, in some respects, sucked aliveness out of the things it promises to enhance: networking and uninterrupted presence.

This is not to say that Hanff's letter assemblage necessarily makes for a nostalgic flashback to an obliterated past that tends towards a wishful recovery of it. But it does stir a very human longing for a simple bond of friendship sustained notwithstanding the 50s-60s perception of distance (New York / London).

A distance that is not merely geographical but also temperamental. Because Helene Hanff and Frank Doel could not be more different if they tried. Helen is a writer who has to constantly wait on commissioned work to make ends meet, in this not very different from Frank Doel, her chief correspondent and bookseller at Marks & Co. on Charing Cross Road. Quintessential quirkiness on the one hand, self-contained British reserve on the other, the two wonderfully maintain contact from year to year, usually initiated by some peculiar book request on Helene's part, or Frank's responses to her old requests. It is, therefore, their variously manifested life passion for rare books that nourishes communication between them. Except that, in time, they warm up to each others' ways, and come to delight in the correspondence, to some extent participating in each others' lives.

Helene's plan to visit England never quite materialises, but others from London (Frank's wife and colleagues amongst others) cannot resist getting in touch with her from time to time. Because Helene is also extremely generous and vibrant. Opinionated, no doubt, but so candid and likeable. And, of course, she likes to affectionately taunt Frank, who is not as uptight as one would be apt to think and reciprocates with care and attention.

I certainly kept wanting to read more of her whimsical letters, much like her correspondents. It did sadden me somewhat to think about their long intervals of silence, and yet each letter comes across as the rightful continuation to its former counterparts. The mark of true friendship.

4 stars. Highly recommended to all readers. ...more

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Oct 09, 2021 Terrie Robinson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: library, non-fiction, paperback, read-in-2021, historical-non-fiction, epistolary-non-fiction

"84, Charing Cross Road" by Helene Hanff is an Epistolary Historical Non-Fiction treasure!

Letters exchanged between writer Helene Hanff and bookseller Frank Doel (rhymes with 'Noel' just in case you were curious!) She lived in New York City and was a lover of old out-of-print books. He lived and worked in London as an antiquarian at MARKS & CO. at 84, Charing Cross Road.

A book containing nothing other than letters that traveled back and forth across the pond started in 1949 and continued for 20 ...more

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Nov 28, 2017 Esil rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

An easy 5 stars!

I listened to this lovely short audiobook. It's completely charming. The voices are perfect. And in an odd way it reminded me of what I love about Goodreads. Strangers connecting over their mutual love of books. Slowly the book focused repartee morphs into a real sense of affinity and frienship.

A bit of warmth to ease the dark cold days of November. A nice relief from the miserable state of world politics.

I'm late to this party, but I highly recommend it -- especially the audio. ...more

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Feb 08, 2015 Diane S ☔ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Loved every single page of this wonderful little novel, told in letters. The lost art of letter writing, but amazing how much we can tell of the relationship between the author in New York and a bookstore in London. Requesting books to be sent to her she makes the acquaintance of Frank Dole, his wife, his neighbor and other employees of the bookstore. Starts out as a purely business relationship we can tell letter by letter as they become more friendly, discussing their families, friends, jobs a ...more

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Feb 02, 2017 Annet rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: new-york, europe, very-british

A beautiful, sincere and humorous correspondence between a writer in New York (Helen) looking for unique books all the time and having them shipped over from Europe and a bookstore manager in London over the years.... Fun, nostalgic read with a smile.

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Sep 10, 2017 Jean-Luke rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, favorites

March 16, 2020,

Dear HH,

America (and possibly the world) has gone mad. Rationing is a word that would get you a black eye if you mentioned it while waiting in today's mile-long line at the supermarket. You would think Armageddon is upon us from the carts and carts of groceries people are pushing to their cars, leaving the rest to scrape the broken eggs from the floor in aisle Nine, where that fight between two shoppers just took place. (The carnage would surely have been much greater if toilet p ...more

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Aug 22, 2008 Trevor rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

I love this book and love the film they made of it too. It is sloppy and sweet and warm and, you know, just right. It is the sort of book one could read in an hour or two over a pot of tea on a cold winter's afternoon and just enjoy. Pure delight.

If you needed to be reminded that love of literature is as good a foundation of love of the world as any other 'religion', that the people we write to can be closer and dearer to us than those we see day after day - then this really is a book written to ...more

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Dec 24, 2020 Kalliope rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-english, 20-century, american, 2020, letters, britain

Dear Mila,

When you gave me the large and heavy cubic box as my Christmas gift, with the red ribbon on top, I could not believe my eyes. What on earth had crossed your mind to offer me such a striking gift? And my wonder expanded as I opened it and realized the reason for the size. It was fool of a variety of goodies.

There was on top another parcel, a light one this time, of a round shape. When I unwrapped it, I had in my hands a Klein blue hat, in the shape of a 1920s bell. The colour of my coat ...more

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May 04, 2018 Paul rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: letters

This book is a complete delight. It is not a love story or a romance, but a series of letters between two book lovers from the late 1940s to the late 1960s. Helene Hanff is a lively and outspoken New Yorker who is unable to get hold of decently bound books, especially older and slightly more obscure ones. She answers an ad and contacts Marks and Co at 84 Charing Cross Road. There Frank Doel, a very proper English bookseller responds and starts to find and send her books from the lists she sends. This book is a complete delight. It is not a love story or a romance, but a series of letters between two book lovers from the late 1940s to the late 1960s. Helene Hanff is a lively and outspoken New Yorker who is unable to get hold of decently bound books, especially older and slightly more obscure ones. She answers an ad and contacts Marks and Co at 84 Charing Cross Road. There Frank Doel, a very proper English bookseller responds and starts to find and send her books from the lists she sends. Hanff’s friendliness, outspokenness and sheer vivacity gradually breaks down Frank Doel’s reserve and a friendships develops. Hanff sends to London difficult to find items to London which was still in the throes of rationing (mainly foodstuffs, but also nylons for the female employees). Gradually we also hear the voices of some of the other employees, Frank’s wife Nora and their elderly next door neighbour. There is a warmth and humanity here and a solid friendship based on books; something which should warm all our hearts.
There is also, of course, the film starring Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins. My edition has a preface by Anne Bancroft (her husband, Mel Brooks, bought the film rights for her, so she could play Hanff) and an introduction by Juliet Stevenson. What is most moving of course is that Hanff and Doel never met and the book came along after his death in the late 1960s and was an immediate hit. There has also been a play and a TV adaptation. There is a new adaptation of the play touring the UK at present starring Stephanie Powers and Clive Francis.
I really did love this, it’s a meeting of bookish minds, something done by letter, which we can now do much more easily on sites like this. Hanff keeps threatening to visit, but never makes it:
“You better watch out, I’m coming over there in ’53 if Ellery is renewed. I’m gonna climb up that Victorian book-ladder and disturb the dust on the top shelves and everybody’s decorum.”
Hanff’s wit and irreverence are a constant delight:
“I have these guilts about never having read Chaucer but I was talked out of learning Early Anglo-Saxon / Middle English by a friend who had to take it for her Ph.D. They told her to write an essay in Early Anglo-Saxon on any-subject-of-her-own-choosing. “Which is all very well,” she said bitterly, “but the only essay subject you can find enough Early Anglo-Saxon words for is ‘How to Slaughter a Thousand Men in a Mead Hall’.”
A comment on the arrival of a new book:
“The day Hazlitt came he opened to “I hate to read new books,” and I hollered “Comrade!” to whoever owned it before me.”
And on buying books in general:
“It’s against my principles to buy a book I haven’t read, it’s like buying a dress you haven’t tried on.”
One of my favourites!
...more

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Mar 09, 2021 Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, own, paperback-own

I teared up a bit there at the end ...

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

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May 14, 2012 ij rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-about-books, autobiography-memoir, group-read, 2014, non-fiction

This memoir was a great read. It consisted of letters primarily between Helene Hanff, the author, and Frank Doel, an employee of Marks and Company, Booksellers. The title of the book 84, Charing Cross Road was the address to the bookshop, in London. The letters started on October 5, 1949 and continued back and forth for almost twenty (20) years.

In the first letter, Ms. Hanff describes herself as a “poor writer with an antiquarian taste in books.” These books she thought to be too costly in New ...more

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May 11, 2012 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I received this book in the mail (a surprise gift) -- so I read it 'on the spot'.

The book is only about 100 pages long --but a charming read (one I'm glad I read).

This is an older book (first published in 1970)....The year I graduated High School.

The author Helene Hanff, a freelance writer was living in New York City. She spent twenty years corresponding to a used book dealer in London. (they did not do this over the internet). ***SLOW MAIL***!
Though never meeting in person, they shared a comm ...more

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Mar 12, 2020 Piyangie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

This is an epistolary book that contains the correspondence between Helen Hanff, an American scriptwriter, and Marks & Co., a London second-hand book store at 84, Charing Cross Road. The chief correspondent on behalf of Mark and Co. is Frank Doyle and this correspondence continues faithfully for nearly two decades until the death of Frank.

The letters are charming and very interesting to read. They provide an insight into the friendship between Helen and Frank. It begins with a shared interest i This is an epistolary book that contains the correspondence between Helen Hanff, an American scriptwriter, and Marks & Co., a London second-hand book store at 84, Charing Cross Road. The chief correspondent on behalf of Mark and Co. is Frank Doyle and this correspondence continues faithfully for nearly two decades until the death of Frank.

The letters are charming and very interesting to read. They provide an insight into the friendship between Helen and Frank. It begins with a shared interest in books and later on develops into a more personal friendship which involves his wife and children too into corresponding with Helen. The readers can understand the characters of the writers through the letters, especially that of Helen and Frank. Helen struck me as a curious lady with a peculiar taste. She was a tough customer but had a generous and kind heart that warmed all hearts at Marks & Co. Frank was very English, but he was a good sport. I really enjoyed reading about their relationship and especially Helen's playful chiding when she becomes impatient for her requested books. The letter announcing Frank's death was the most emotional letter of all. I felt so sad for Helen; she never got the chance to meet him, "the blessed man to whom she owed much".

The story left me with both nostalgia and longing. When I was perusing my undergraduate degree, I ordered all my law books from Wildy & Sons Ltd, a law book store in London. I used to email them the book list with my credit card no (I wasn't familiar with online purchasing then) and within two weeks the books were at my doorstep. I remember a few times they recommend some books and included them in my order. I found them very useful and was very grateful for their attention. I had such an easy time getting all the books I needed thanks to them. It is such a long time ago, but these letters brought the memories back. And they also left me longing to find a Mark and Co. and a Frank Doyle for me. How nice would it be to correspond with a bookseller? I'll be over the moon, I'm sure. You were one lucky Lady, Helene, and I'm very jealous of you. :) ...more

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Nov 13, 2016 PattyMacDotComma rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: fans of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Shelves: aa, non-fiction, favourites-adult, aa-col, kindle, bio-memoir

5★
If you love books and letters, this is the book for you! People have been interacting kind of anonymously for a long time, without dating apps or the internet. I used to handwrite letters back and forth to friends I seldom saw – now it’s emails and posts, but same banter, bluster, shared triumphs and tears.

This is the most charming, funny, and touching book about a 20-year, long-distance correspondence which starts out as a relatively simple book order. Helene Hanff, a New York writer herself ...more

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May 07, 2019 Dem rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

An endearing little book and quick and easy read. I enjoyed it but not one for my favourite shelf.

I have wanted to read this book for years as it has such amazing review and I just never came across a hard copy but found an audible version and went with that. Not sure audible is the best format for a book where the content is a series of letters back and forth as they performance seemed quite repetitive. However I do love the “ old snail mail” format and have just one Aunt who still correspon ...more

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May 27, 2011 Sara rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: women-writers, audio, epistolary

Why is it that people who wouldn’t dream of stealing anything else think it's perfectly alright to steal books?

Now there is a question I would like to have answered. It comes from the correspondence of Helene Hanff, and it speaks to her love of books and her cheeky relationship with the man in receipt of her letters.

The lovely correspondence of Helene Hanff, a New York bibliophile, and Frank Doel, a British bookseller, with occasional letters from others thrown in to round out the story, takes p ...more

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Feb 01, 2017 Britany rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-to-film, mmd, 2017, bookriot, botn, memoir, non-fiction, buddy-read

I've known about his little gem for so many years, waiting for a special moment to finally dive in. I just love books filled with mementos and letters. I grew up sorting cards and old mail at my grandmother's house to the PostMan Books and now a grown up letter book. Helene Hanff is an American writer desperate to fill her reading dreams with editions of books she has trouble finding in the US. She starts a correspondence with an English bookstore.

I ate up this book like a cat with a bowl of cr ...more

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May 30, 2018 Melisa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Lovely. Charming. A book lover’s book.

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Feb 16, 2018 Laysee rated it really liked it · review of another edition

84 Charing Cross Road chronicles a beautiful twenty-year relationship between an American reader of antiquarian books and Marks & Co. Booksellers, London. The latter ‘is the loveliest old shop straight out of Dickens’. It has very old grey oak shelves that smell of age and dust going up to the ceiling. This epistolary book contains the correspondence from 1949 to 1969 between Ms. Helene Hanff, a penurious writer who loves antiquarian books, and Frank Doel, the knowledgeable and efficient booksto 84 Charing Cross Road chronicles a beautiful twenty-year relationship between an American reader of antiquarian books and Marks & Co. Booksellers, London. The latter ‘is the loveliest old shop straight out of Dickens’. It has very old grey oak shelves that smell of age and dust going up to the ceiling. This epistolary book contains the correspondence from 1949 to 1969 between Ms. Helene Hanff, a penurious writer who loves antiquarian books, and Frank Doel, the knowledgeable and efficient bookstore manager, and later, his wife Nora and other staff members . Every letter is a joy to read.

It was lovely to witness the stiff and formal nature of the correspondence give way to warmth and affection as the correspondents develop a friendship across the miles. This quirky American with a lively wit and an infectious sense of humor is determined ‘to puncture that proper British reserve’. It takes three years before “Dear Madam” becomes “Dear Helene”. It made me laugh to read, “Now listen Frankie, it’s going to be a long cold winter and I babysit in the evenings and I need reading matter. Don’t sit around, go find me some books!” Helene, a writer of TV scripts and children’s history books, lives in a small apartment in a brown stone house in New York, and yet she generously sends food parcels (fresh eggs!) to the employees in Marks and Co., during those postwar food rationing years in the UK. Her thoughtfulness is greeted with profound gratitude and importunate invitation from her UK friends to come visit, what to Helene is, ‘the England of English Literature’.

Anyone who loves books will certainly identify with the rapturous thrills Helene gets when a rare book or an exquisitely bound edition makes its way to her. On receiving the first edition of John Henry’s Newman Discourses on the Scope and Nature of University Education, Helene writes this to Frank, “I never saw a book so beautiful. I feel vaguely guilty about owning it. All the gleaming leather and gold stamping and beautiful type belongs to the pine-panelled library of an English country home...” And on the ‘fellowship’ of second-hand books, Helene shares this precious thought: “I love inscriptions on fly leaves and notes in margins, I like the comradely sense of turning pages someone else turned, and reading passages someone long gone had called my attention to.”

It surprises me a little that Helene seems to disdain fiction. She says unapologetically, “...I never can get interested in things that didn’t happen to people who never lived.” That is until she finally reads Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and in her next letter to Frank, confesses a change of heart and orders a copy. Soon she recounts, “P-and-P arrived looking exactly as Jane ought to look - soft leather, slim and impeccable.” Later she introduces a friend to P-and-P and reports “she has gone out of her mind for Jane Austen.” I had a big smile on my face reading these exchanges.

84 Charing Cross Road is pure delight. I had to buy a hard copy as no Kindle edition was available. It has been a while since I read a physical book whose pages I can flip back and forth with ease. This brings to mind what Helene says “..I never knew a book would be such a joy to the touch.” It sure is. 84 Charing Cross Road is a book lover’s book. It will also endear itself to any member of the Goodreads community. Highly recommended. ...more

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About Helene Hanff

Helene Hanff

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Helene Hanff (April 15, 1916–April 9, 1997) was an American writer. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she is best known as the author of the book 84 Charing Cross Road, which became the basis for a play, teleplay, and film of the same name.

Her career, which saw her move from writing unproduced plays to helping create some of the earliest television dramas to becoming a kind of professional New Y ...more

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84 Charing Cross Road / The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street

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“I do love secondhand books that open to the page some previous owner read oftenest. The day Hazlitt came he opened to "I hate to read new books," and I hollered "Comrade!" to whoever owned it before me.” — 253 likes

“I love inscriptions on flyleaves and notes in margins, I like the comradely sense of turning pages someone else turned, and reading passages someone long gone has called my attention to.” — 203 likes

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