Gradually the distant ‘FDP’ who first signed Marks & Co.’s letters emerged as ‘Frank Doel’, and ‘Faithfully Yours’ gave way to ‘With best wishes’, and eventually simply ‘Love Frank’. Having dropped out of college, she had decided to take her education into her own hands, and this had already led her down some little-frequented literary pathways which, with the passage of time, became ever more esoteric.Īfter a while, however, letters between the feisty, eccentric New York writer and the staff of the bookshop in Charing Cross Road began to encompass much more than books. When she began writing to Marks & Co., Helene Hanff was in her early thirties, scraping a living as a freelance scriptwriter and journalist. Marks & Co.’s polite but formal reply regretted they were unable to supply the particular volume she described, but enquired if she would like them to send ‘a Latin New Testament, also a Greek New Testament, ordinary modern editions in cloth binding’. She enclosed a list of her ‘most pressing problems’, one of which was a Latin Bible. Helene Hanff described herself as ‘a poor writer with an antiquarian taste in books’ which she was unable to satisfy as ‘all the things I want are impossible to get over here except in very expensive rare editions, or grimy, marked-up school copies’. It was not the kind of letter they were accustomed to receiving, but it was one that would make history. This story has been made into a successful play, and later a TV series (1975) and film (1987).In the drab and traumatized post-war London of 1949, Marks & Co., second-hand and antiquarian booksellers at 84, Charing Cross Road, received an enquiry from a Miss Helene Hanff of New York City.
By the time she made plans to visit, the book shop owner had passed away due to illness and the shop was closed soon after. Hanff's "84, Charing Cross Road" is the heartbreaking record of correspondences she maintained with bookshop employees in London during WWII. Previous owner's name penned onto front free end paper which doubles as the half title page.
Some chipping to dust jacket near head of spine dust jacket exhibits some closed tears. Dust jacket is in very good- condition due to a previous owner having cut the top of the front flap and a corner off of the front cover. Some very mild discoloration to top right corner of front board. Red cloth over boards with black stamped postal illustration on front board and white stamped title on spine, with author's name stamped in black.
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