Helene Hanff
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 Yorker, goes far beyond the charm of that one book. She called her 1961 memoir Underfoot in Show Business, and it chronicled the struggle of an ambitious young playwright to make it in the world of New York theatre in the 1940s and 1950s. She worked in publicists' offices and spent summers on the "straw hat" circuit along the East Coast of the United States, writing plays that were admired by some of Broadway's leading producers but which somehow never saw the light of day. She wrote and edited scripts for a variety of early television dramas produced out of New York, all the while continuing to try and move from being what she called "one of the 999 out of 1,000 who don't become Noel Coward." When the bulk of television production moved to California, her work slowly dried up, and she turned to writing for magazines and, eventually, to the books that made her reputation. First published in 1970, the epistolary work 84 Charing Cross Road chronicles her 20 years of correspondence with Frank Doel, the chief buyer for Marks & Co., a London bookshop, on which she depended for the obscure classics and British literature titles around which her passion for self-education revolved. She became intimately involved in the lives of the shop's staff, sending them food parcels during England's post-war shortages and sharing with them details of her life in Manhattan. Due to financial difficulties and an aversion to travel, she put off visiting her English friends until too late; Doel died in December 1968 from peritonitis from a burst appendix, and the bookshop eventually closed. Hanff did finally visit Charing Cross Road and the empty but still standing shop in the summer of 1971, a trip recorded in her 1973 book The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street. In the 1987 film of 84 Charing Cross Road, Hanff was played by Anne Bancroft, while Anthony Hopkins took the part of Frank Doel. Anne Jackson had earlier played Hanff in a 1975 adaptation of the book for British television. Ellen Burstyn recreated the role on Broadway in 1982 at the Nederlander Theater in New York City. She later put her obsession with British scholar Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch to use in a book called Q's Legacy. Other books include Apple of My Eye, an idiosyncratic guide to New York City, and A Letter from New York (1992), which reprinted talks she gave on the BBC's Woman's Hour between 1978 and 1985. Hanff was never shy about her fondness for cigarettes and martinis, but nevertheless lived to be 80, dying of diabetes in 1997 in New York City. The apartment building where she lived at 305 E. 72nd Street has been named "Charing Cross House" in her honor. A bronze plaque next to the front door commemorates her residence and authorship of the book.
21 Books Written
This charming classic, first published in 1970, brings together twenty years of correspondence between Helene Hanff, a freelance writer living in New York City, and a used-book dealer in London. Through the years, though never meeting and separated both geographically and culturally, they share a winsome, sentimental friendship based on their common love for books. Their relationship, captured so acutely in these letters, is one that will grab your heart and not let go.
When she’s invited to London for the English publication of her wildly successful book, 84 Charing Cross Road—in which she shares two decades of correspondence with Frank Doel, a British bookseller who became a dear friend—New York writer Helene Hanff is thrilled to realize a lifelong dream. The trip will be bittersweet, because she can’t help wishing Frank was still alive, but she’s determined to capture every moment of the journey.Helene’s time in London exceeds her wildest expectations. She visits landmarks like Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle; explores Shakespeare’s favorite pub, Dickens’s house, and the Oxford University courtyard where John Donne used to walk; and makes a host of new friends from all walks of life, who take her to the theater, introduce her to institutions like Harrod’s, and share with her their favorite corners of countryside.A love letter to England and its literary heritage, written by a Manhattanite who isn’t afraid to speak her mind (or tell a British barman how to make a real American martini), The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street is an endearing account of two wildly different worlds colliding; it’s an outsider’s witty, vibrant portrait of idiosyncratic British culture at its best, as well as a profound commentary about the written word’s power to sustain us, transport us, and unite us.
This is the remarkable story of how Helene Hanff came to write 84, Charing Cross Road, and of all the things its success has brought her. Hanff recalls her serendipitous discovery of a volume of lectures by a Cambridge don, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. She devoured Q’s book, and, wanting to read all the books he recommended, began to order them from a small store in London, at 84, Charing Cross Road. Thus began a correspondence that became an enormously popular book, play and television production, and that finally led to the trip to England – and a visit to Q’s study – that she recounts here. In this exuberant memoir, Hanff pays her debt to her mentor and shares her joyous adventures with her many fans.
It's a book about show business, where fame is the stock in trade. Each year there are hundreds of stagestruck kids arrive in New York determined to crash the theatre, firmly convinced they're destined to be famous Broadway stars or playwrights.
For six years, Helene Hanff held captive audiences all over the world with her monthly broadcasts on the BBC's 'Woman's Hour.' In five-minute vignettes, she managed to convey the essential New York City: life in a high rise apartment building ('the last small town in America'); annals of Chester-the-Sheepdog, Duke, the German shepherd, and their friends; the tree-lighting, magic and music of Christmas in New York. We meet Arlene, Hanff's high-flying friend who's social life (and wardrobe) put Hanff's one-and-one-half room apartment and simple writer's life in perspective. We walk through Nina's garden, 16 stories up and witness famous New York rites of passage from the hysteria of St. Patrick's Day to Shakespeare's Garden and the neighbors who saved it, to block parties, with their 'sizzling Italian sausages and shish kebab and flossy plates of pate and brie,' all told in Hanff's inimitable style. We join Hanff as she flies to London to realize a lifetime dream at the Ambassador Theatre: opening night for the play, '84, Charing Cross Road.' And we witness the elegant Arlene as she meets and falls in love with a New York City cop.
A celebration of her life-long love for New York, Hanff embarked on this project as an assignment, and realized she had not been to many of the main tourist attractions- the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, the World Trade Center. As make-believe tourists, off she and Patsy travel to describe the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Grant's Tomb, Fraunces Tavern, some of New York's very special small museums, Orchard Street, a tour of Harlem, and much more. Hanff weaves in historical events and tidbits on some of New York's most notorious personalities.
The Helene Hanff Omnibus: Underfoot in Show Business; 84 Charing Cross Road; The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street; The Apple of My Eye; Q's Legacy
by Helene Hanff
Rating: 4.5 ⭐
Reflecting her combination of dry humor and observation, this is an omnibus edition of the American Helene Hanff's five autobiographical books. "Underfoot in Show Business" is the zany memoir of her playwriting apprenticeship, when she was young and penniless, yet determined to have fun. "84 Charing Cross Road", her most acclaimed work, is the account of her 20-year exchange of correspondence with a London antiquarian bookshop. "The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street" is the diary of her first journey to London. "Apple of My Eye" is her eccentric view of life in New York. And "Q's Legacy" is a tribute to Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, who strongly influenced her tastes.
A biography of Queen Elizabeth I, who, without husband or sons, successfully ruled England for 45 years and made it the most powerful kingdom on the globe.
When his father runs for mayor, Butch almost ruins the election campaign by trying to help.
Discusses the philosophies and activities of the various youth movements in the sixties and their efforts to bring about reforms in the American establishment.
The story of a young boy who takes his New York apartment building by storm.
This slender pamphlet tells the story of those men who signed the US Constitution in 1787 in Philadelphia and how the signing came about. There are three color prints in the front and three more in the back of the book with six places for them to be glued throughout the pamphlet. There is a copy of the original Constitution at the back of the book, including amendments through Article XXII, effective Feb. 26, 1951 limiting to two four year terms a President can serve.The author is a native of Philadelphia. She has written many radio and TV plays.
Heartbreak Thursday Hand numbered and hand signed by one of the most famous authors from the 20th century. Only 10 published. This book has been kept in mint condition. Never read. Phenomenal condition. It comes from a pet free, smoke free home. It is 1 of 10 Copy #8 Signed
Early Settlers in America: Jamestown, Plymouth, and Salem
by Helene Hanff
A story based on the different races and creeds of the early settlers and their struggle to live together.
John F. Kennedy: Young Man of Destiny
by Helene Hanff
Good Neighbors;: The Peace Corps in Latin America
by Helene Hanff
Paraguay and Uruguay
by Helene Hanff
1967. No edition remarks. 63 pages. Sticker book. Paperback book with pictorial cover. Colour and black and white illustrations throughout. Pages remain bright and clean with minimal tanning and foxing. Some stickers still to be affixed. Paper cover has mild edge-wear with light rubbing and creasing. Some light marking and tanning.
Mexico
by Helene Hanff
Our Nation's Capital
by Helene Hanff
Q's Legacy [ Uncorrected Advance Proof]
by Helene Hanff