84 Charing Cross Road Read online

  Megan is still here but planning to go to South Africa to live, we are all trying to talk her out of it. We have heard nothing from Cecily Farr since she went out to the East to join her husband, though they were only to be gone a year.

  I shall be only too pleased to root for the Brooklyn Dodgers if you will reciprocate with a few cheers for THE SPURS (the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club to the uninitiated), who are at present languishing next to the bottom of the League. However, the season does not finish until next April so they have plenty of time to get themselves out of the mess.

  Nora and all here join me in sending our best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

  Sincerely,

  Frank Doel

  14 e. 95th st.

  nyc

  jan. 4, 1956

  i write you from under the bed where that catullus drove me.

  i mean it PASSETH understanding.

  Up till now, the only Richard Burton I ever heard of is a handsome young actor I’ve seen in a couple of British movies and I wish I’d kept it that way. This one got knighted for turning Catullus—caTULLus—into Victorian hearts-and-flowers.

  and poor little Mr. smithers must have been afraid his mother was going to read it, he like to KILL himself cleaning it all up.

  all right, let’s just you go find me a nice plain Latin Catullus, I bought myself a Cassell’s dictionary, I’ll work out the hard passages by myself.

  WILL YOU TELL MEGAN WELLS SHE IS OUT OF HER COTTONPICKING MIND? if she’s that bored with civilization why doesn’t she just move to a siberian salt mine?

  certainly, certainly, glad to root for anything with Hotspur in it.

  Have been socking money in the savings bank for next summer, if TV keeps feeding me till then I’m finally coming over, I want to see the shop and St. Paul’s and Parliament and the Tower and Covent Garden and the Old Vic and Old Mrs. Boulton.

  i enclose a sawbuck for that thing. that catullus. bound in white Limp—mit-white-silk-bookmark-yet, frankie, where do you FIND these things?!

  hh

  Marks & Co., Booksellers

  84, Charing Cross Road

  London, W.C.2

  16th March, 1956

  Miss Helene Hanff

  14 East 95th Street

  New York City 28, N.Y.

  U.S.A.

  Dear Helene,

  I am sorry to have been so long in writing, but until today we have had nothing to send you and I thought it best to wait a decent interval after the Catullus incident before writing.

  We have finally managed to find a very nice edition of Tristram Shandy with the Robb illustrations, price approximately $2.75. We have also acquired a copy of Plato’s Four Socratic Dialogues, translated by Benjamin Jowett, Oxford, 1903. Would you like this for $1.00? You have a $1.22 credit with us so the balance due on the two books would be $2.53.

  We are waiting to hear whether you are finally coming to England this summer. Both the girls are away at school so you will have your choice of beds at 37 Oakfield Court. I am sorry to say that Mrs. Boulton has been taken to a home, it was rather a sad day but at least she will be looked after there.

  Sincerely,

  Frank Doel

  14 East 95th St.

  New York City

  June 1, 1956

  Dear Frank:

  Brian introduced me to Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows and I have to have this—with the Shepard illustrations please—but DON’T MAIL IT, JUST HOLD IT FOR ME TILL SEPTEMBER and then mail it to the new address.

  The sky fell on us in this cozy brownstone, we got eviction notices last month, they’re renovating the building. I decided the time had come to get me a real apartment with real furniture, and in my right mind and shaking all over I went around to the construction site of a new building going up over on 2nd Avenue and signed a lease on a 2½ (“bed-sitter”) apartment that isn’t even there yet. I am now racing around buying furniture and bookshelves and wall-to-wall carpet with all my England money, but all my life I’ve been stuck in dilapidated furnished rooms and cockroachy kitchens and I want to live like a lady even if it means putting off England till it’s paid for.

  Meanwhile the landlord thinks we’re not moving out fast enough and is encouraging us by firing the super, leaving nobody to give us hot water or take the garbage out, and also by ripping out the mailboxes, the hall light fixtures and (as of this week) the wall between my kitchen and bathroom. all this and the dodgers disintegrating before my very eyes, nobody-knows-the-trouble-i-see.

  Oh, the new address:

  AFTER SEPTEMBER 1:

  305 E. 72nd St., New York, N.Y. 21

  Marks & Co., Booksellers

  84, Charing Cross Road

  London, W.C.2

  3rd May, 1957

  Miss Helene Hanff

  305 East 72nd Street

  New York 21, N.Y.

  U.S.A.

  Dear Helene,

  Prepare yourself for a shock. ALL THREE of the books you requested in your last letter are on the way to you and should arrive in a week or so. Don’t ask how we managed it—it’s just a part of the Marks service. Our bill is enclosed herewith showing balance due of $5.00

  Two of your friends dropped in to see us a few days ago and now I have forgotten their names—a young married couple and very charming. Unfortunately they only had time to stop and smoke a cigarette as they were off again on their travels next morning.

  We seem to have had more American visitors than ever this year, including hundreds of lawyers who march around with a large card pinned to their clothes stating their home town and name. They all seem to be enjoying their trip so you will have to manage it next year.

  With best wishes from us all,

  Frank

  POSTCARD MAILED FROM STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, MAY 6, 1957

  You might have warned us! We walked into your bookstore and said we were friends of yours and were nearly mobbed. Your Frank wanted to take us home for the weekend. Mr. Marks came out from the back of the store just to shake hands with friends-of-Miss-Hanff, everybody in the place wanted to wine and dine us, we barely got out alive.

  Thought you’d like to see the house where your Sweet-William was born.

  On to Paris, then Copenhagen, home on the 23rd.

  Love,

  Ginny and Ed

  Helene Hanff 305 East 72nd Street, New York 21, N.Y.

  * * *

  January 10, 1958

  Hey, Frankie—

  Tell Nora to bring her address book up to date, your Christmas card just got here, she sent it to 14 e. 95th st.

  Don’t know whether I ever told you how dearly I love that Tristram Shandy, the Robb illustrations are enchanting, Uncle Toby would have been pleased. Now then. In the back, there’s a list of other Macdonald Illustrated Classics which includes the Essays of Elia. I’d love to have this in the Macdonald edition—or any nice edition. If it’s Reasonable, of course. Nothing’s cheap any more, it’s “reasonable.” Or “sensibly priced.” There’s a building going up across the street, the sign over it says:

  “One and Two Bedroom Apartments

  At Rents That Make Sense.”

  Rents do NOT make sense. And prices do not sit around being reasonable about anything, no matter what it says in the ad—which isn’t an ad any more, it’s A Commercial.

  i go through life watching the english language being raped before my face. like miniver cheevy, I was born too late.

  and like miniver cheevy I cough and call it fate and go on drinking.

  hh

  p.s. whatever became of plato’s minor dialogues?

  Marks & Co., Booksellers

  84, Charing Cross Road

  London, W.C.2

  11th March, 1958

  Miss Helene Hanff

  305 East 72nd Street

  New York 21, New York

  U.S.A.

  Dear Helene,

  I must apologize for having taken so long to answer your last letter but we
have had rather a hectic time. Nora has been in hospital for the past several months and I have had my hands full at home. She is almost fully recovered and will be coming home in a week or so. It has been a trying time for us but thanks to our National Health Service it hasn’t cost us a penny.

  About the Macdonald Classics, we do get a few from time to time but have none at the moment. We had several copies of Lamb’s Essays of Elia earlier on but they were snapped up during the holiday rush. I am off on a buying trip next week and will look out for one for you. Not forgetting the Plato.

  We all hope you had a good holiday season and the girls apologize for sending your Christmas card to the old address.

  Faithfully yours,

  Frank

  37 Oakfield Court

  Haslemere Road

  Crouch End

  London, N.8

  May 7th, 1958

  Dear Helene,

  I have to thank you for your two letters, thanks for the offer, Helene, but there is really nothing we need. I wish we had our own bookshop, then we would be able to repay your kindness by sending you a few books.

  I am enclosing a few recent snaps of my happy family, I wish they were better but we seem to have given all the best ones to relatives. You will probably notice how very much alike Sheila and Mary are. It is rather noticeable. Frank says that Mary, as she has been growing up, is exactly like Sheila was at the same age. Sheila’s mother was Welsh and I hail from the Emerald Isle so they both must resemble Frank but they are better-looking than he is, though of course he won’t admit this!

  If you knew how much I hate writing you would feel sorry for me. Frank says for one who talks so much I put up a very bad show on paper.

  Again thanks for the letters and good wishes.

  God bless!

  Nora

  Marks & Co., Booksellers

  84, Charing Cross Road

  London, W.C.2

  18th March, 1959

  Miss Helene Hanff

  305 East 72nd Street

  New York 21, New York

  U.S.A.

  Dear Helene,

  I don’t know how to break the bad news, but two days after offering you the Shorter Oxford Dictionary for your friend, a man came in and bought it when my back was turned. I have delayed replying to your letter in the hope that another one would come along, but no luck yet. I am terribly sorry to disappoint your friend but you can blame it all on me as I really ought to have reserved it.

  We are sending off by Book Post today the Johnson on Shakespeare, which we happened to have in stock in the Oxford Press edition with introduction by Walter Raleigh. It is only $1.05 and your balance with us was more than enough to cover it.

  We are all sorry to hear that your television shows have moved to Hollywood and that one more summer will bring us every American tourist but the one we want to see. I can quite understand your refusal to leave New York for Southern California. We have our fingers crossed for you and hope that some sort of work will turn up soon.

  Sincerely,

  Frank

  Helene Hanff 305 East 72nd Street, New York 21, N.Y.

  * * *

  August 15, 1959

  sir:

  i write to say i have got work.

  i won it. i won a $5,000 Grant-in-Aid, off CBS, it’s supposed to support me for a year while I write American History dramatizations. I am starting with a script about New York under seven years of British Occupation and i MARVEL at how i rise above it to address you in friendly and forgiving fashion, your behavior over here from 1776 to 1783 was simply FILTHY.

  Is there such a thing as a modern-English version of the Canterbury Tales? 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.’ ”

  She also filled me in on Beowulf and his illegitimate son Sidwith—or is it Widsith? she says it’s not worth reading so that killed my interest in the entire subject, just send me a modern Chaucer.

  love to nora

  hh

  Marks & Co., Booksellers

  84, Charing Cross Road

  London, W.C.2

  2nd September, 1959

  Miss Helene Hanff

  305 East 72nd Street

  New York 21, New York

  U.S.A.

  Dear Helene,

  We were all delighted to hear that you’ve won a Grant-in-Aid and are working again. We are prepared to be broad-minded about your choice of subject matter, but I must tell you that one of the young inmates here confessed that until he read your letter he never knew that England had ever owned “the States.”

  With regard to Chaucer, the best scholars seem to have fought shy of putting him into modern English, but there was an edition put out by Longmans in 1934, the Canterbury Tales only, a modernized version by Hill, which I believe is quite good. It is (of course!) out of print and I am trying to find a nice clean secondhand copy.

  Sincerely,

  Frank

  sunday night and a hell of a

  way to start 1960.

  i don’t know, frankie—

  Somebody gave me this book for Christmas. It’s a Giant Modern Library book. Did you ever see one of those? It’s less attractively bound than the Proceedings of the New York State Assembly and it weighs more. It was given to me by a gent who knows I’m fond of John Donne. The title of this book is:

  The Complete Poetry

  &

  Selected Prose

  of

  JOHN DONNE

  &

  The Complete Poetry

  of

  WILLIAM BLAKE?

  The question mark is mine. Will you please tell me what those two boys have in common?—except they were both English and they both Wrote? I tried reading the Introduction figuring that might explain it. The Introduction is in four parts. Parts I and II include a Professor’s life of Donne mit-illustrations-from-the-author’s-works-also-criticism. Part III begins—and God knows I quote—:

  When, as a little boy, William Blake saw the prophet Ezekiel under a tree amid a summer field, he was soundly trounced by his mother.

  I’m with his mother. I mean, the back of the Lord God or the face of the Virgin Mary, all right—but why the hell would anybody want to see the prophet Ezekiel?

  I don’t like Blake anyway, he swoons too much, it’s Donne I’m writing about, I am being driven clear up the wall, Frankie, you have GOT to help me.

  Here I was, curled up in my armchair so at peace with the world, with something old and serene on the radio—Corelli or somebody—and this thing on the table. This Giant Modern Library thing. So I thought:

  “I will read the three standard passages from Sermon XV aloud,” you have to read Donne aloud, it’s like a Bach fugue.

  Would you like to know what I went through in an innocent attempt to read three contiguous uncut passages from Sermon XV aloud?

  You start with the Giant Modern Library version, you locate Sermon XV and there they are: Excerpts I, II and III,—only when you get to the end of Excerpt I you discover they have deleted Jezebel off it. So you get down Donne’s Sermons, Selected Passages (Logan Pearsall Smith) where you spend twenty minutes locating Sermon XV, Excerpt I, because by Logan Pearsall Smith it isn’t Sermon XV, Excerpt I, it’s Passage 126. All Must Die. Now that you’ve found it, you find he also deleted Jezebel so you get down the Complete Poetry & Selected Prose (Nonesuch Press) but they didn’t happen to Select Jezebel either, so you get down the Oxford Book of English Prose where you spend another twenty minutes locating it because in the Oxford English Prose it isn’t Sermon XV, Excerpt I nor yet 126. All Must Die, it’s Passage 113. Death the Leveller. Jezebel is there, and you read it aloud but wh
en you get to the end you find it doesn’t have either Excerpt II or III so you have to switch to one of the other three books provided you had the wit to leave all three open at the right pages which I didn’t.

  So break it to me gently: how hard is it going to be to find me John Donne’s Complete Sermons and how much is it going to cost?

  i am going to bed. i will have hideous nightmares involving huge monsters in academic robes carrying long bloody butcher knives labelled Excerpt, Selection, Passage and Abridged.

  yrs,

  h. hfffffffffffffff

  Marks & Co., Booksellers

  84, Charing Cross Road

  London, W.C.2

  5th March, 1960

  Miss Helene Hanff

  305 East 72nd Street

  New York 21, New York

  U.S.A.

  Dear Helene,

  I have delayed answering your last two letters until I had some good news to report. I have managed to obtain a copy of the Bernard Shaw-Ellen Terry correspondence. It is not a very attractive edition but it is a good clean copy and I thought I had better send it as this is quite a popular book and it might be quite some time before another copy comes along. The price is approximately $2.65 and you have a credit with us of 50 cents.

  I am afraid the complete Donne Sermons can be had only by buying Donne’s Complete Works. This runs to more than 40 volumes and would be very expensive if in good condition.

  We hope you had a good Christmas and New Year in spite of the Giant Modern Library.