Literary Birthday – 15 April – Helene Hanff

Helene Hanff was born on 15 April 1916 and died on 9 April 1997.

Helene Hanff Quotes

1. I do love second-hand books that open to the page some previous owner read oftenest.
2. 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.
3. If you happen to pass by 84 Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me? I owe it so much.
4. 84, Charing Cross Road was no best seller, you understand; it didn’t make me rich or famous. It just got me hundreds of letters and phone calls from people I never knew existed; it got me wonderful reviews; it restored a self-confidence and self-esteem I’d lost somewhere along the way, God knows how many years ago. It brought me to England. It changed my life.
5. History, as they say, is alive and well and living in London.
6. Standing there, staring at the long shelves crammed with books, I felt myself relax and was suddenly at peace.

Helene Hanff was an American writer. In the 1940s and ’50s she wrote plays and television scripts, but found little success until her best-known book, the epistolary novel 84, Charing Cross Road  was published in 1970. 84, Charing Cross Road was a bestseller in England and was adapted for stage, television, and film. Her other books include Q’s Legacy, Apple of My Eye, Letter from New York, and her memoir, Underfoot in Show Business.

Source for image: Edel’s Book, Beauty, Life Blog

by Amanda Patterson

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