Helene Hanff (1916–1997)
Author of 84, Charing Cross Road
About the Author
Series
Works by Helene Hanff
Nuova Grammatica Pratica Della Lingua Italiana (Esercizi, Test, Giochi E Soluzioni) - A1/B2 (2011) 13 copies
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Hanff, Helene
- Birthdate
- 1916-04-15
- Date of death
- 1997-04-09
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Temple University
- Occupations
- publicist
playwright
magazine writer
author
screenwriter
autobiographer - Relationships
- Quiller-Couch, Arthur (literary guru)
- Short biography
- Helene Hanff was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her parents loved the theater and even during the Great Depression managed to find ways to get tickets to shows for the family. She grew up wanting to become a playwright. Her literary career began in 1938, when she won a competition for a fellowship from the Bureau of New Plays and moved to Manhattan. There she became a protégé of Theresa Helburn, a co-producer of the Theater Guild. However, although she wrote 20 plays through the 1940's, none were produced. She later described her struggles in a 1961 memoir, Underfoot in Show Business. She found a new career writing for television when production of the new medium was centered in New York City in the early 1950s. Among the TV dramas she wrote for were The Adventures of Ellery Queen. All the while, she continued to try to get one of her plays produced on Broadway. When the bulk of the TV industry moved to California, Hanff chose to remain in New York. She turned to writing for magazines and eventually to books. Her hugely popular epistolary work 84, Charing Cross Road, first published in 1970, chronicled her 20 years of correspondence with Frank Doel, the chief buyer for Marks & Co., a London bookshop. She became so involved in the lives of the shop's staff that she sent them food parcels during Britain's post-World War II shortages, and shared with them details of her life. A TV adaptation aired in Britain in 1975, a film version was made in 1987 starring Anne Bancroft, and a Broadway play was produced in 1982. Hanff wrote several other works, and put her obsession with Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch to use in a book called Q's Legacy (1985), which served as a prequel to 84 Charing Cross Road and also recounted the aftermath of her book The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street (1973). Other books included Apple of My Eye (1977) and Letter from New York (1992), which reprinted the five-minute talks she gave each month on the BBC's Woman's Hour radio broadcasts between 1978 and 1984. Underfoot in Show Business was adapted as a stage play in 2008 and produced at the Devonshire Theatre in Eastbourne, UK.
- Cause of death
- complications of diabetes
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Places of residence
- New York, New York, USA
- Place of death
- New York, New York, USA
- Burial location
- Mount Lebanon Cemetery, Glendale, New York, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- New York, USA
Members
Discussions
Helene Hannff in Books on Books (September 2024)
1916: Helene Hanff - Resources and General Discussion in Literary Centennials (February 2016)
Reviews
The sun came out and I settled into the old rocker on the sun porch to read. 84, Charing Cross Road was a delight. Helen Hanff is just a hoot and she wins over the more formal, reticent Brits with her enthusiasm and affectionate snarkiness. I laughed out loud when she said it was easier to write to England to order books than get downtown in New York! The original Amazon...
It would be lovely as a story of friendship built through letters but it also provides an intimate view of post-war show more Britain where powered eggs (!) were welcome as rationing limited access to food. Mostly, as someone who grew up writing letters, I was nostalgic for slower times when part of the joy was in the anticipation.
Wikipedia has a partial list of the books Hanff ordered through Marks & Co. show less
It would be lovely as a story of friendship built through letters but it also provides an intimate view of post-war show more Britain where powered eggs (!) were welcome as rationing limited access to food. Mostly, as someone who grew up writing letters, I was nostalgic for slower times when part of the joy was in the anticipation.
Wikipedia has a partial list of the books Hanff ordered through Marks & Co. show less
In October 1949 Helene Hanff, a single woman living and working in her small New York apartment, responded to an ad placed in the Saturday Review of Literature by Marks & Co, a bookshop in London that specialized in used books. Thus began a two-decade long correspondence and friendship between the reserved bookseller and the irrepressible Miss Hanff.
What a delight it is to be allowed to watch this growing relationship, fueled by a shared love of books, and an ability to laugh at oneself and show more one’s follies. I laughed aloud in places. I shared her outrage at books being torn apart to use as wrapping, and then agreed with Frank Doel’s explanation on the practicality of this practice. I marveled at their generosity – not just in the gifts they gave one another, but more importantly, their generosity of spirit, how they gave so freely of their thoughts, gratitude, wishes, grievances, and forgiveness.
I saw the movie, starring Anne Bancroft, many years ago. As I read the letters, I could not help but picture Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins as Helene and Frank. I’m so happy that Hanff decided to publish it, and that Doel’s family gave their wholehearted permission and encouragement to her to do so.
As with most books I read these days, I got this from the library, but I’m going to go out and buy a copy for myself. It’s the kind of book I’ll read over and over just for the sheer joy of it. show less
What a delight it is to be allowed to watch this growing relationship, fueled by a shared love of books, and an ability to laugh at oneself and show more one’s follies. I laughed aloud in places. I shared her outrage at books being torn apart to use as wrapping, and then agreed with Frank Doel’s explanation on the practicality of this practice. I marveled at their generosity – not just in the gifts they gave one another, but more importantly, their generosity of spirit, how they gave so freely of their thoughts, gratitude, wishes, grievances, and forgiveness.
I saw the movie, starring Anne Bancroft, many years ago. As I read the letters, I could not help but picture Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins as Helene and Frank. I’m so happy that Hanff decided to publish it, and that Doel’s family gave their wholehearted permission and encouragement to her to do so.
As with most books I read these days, I got this from the library, but I’m going to go out and buy a copy for myself. It’s the kind of book I’ll read over and over just for the sheer joy of it. show less
Just like [84, Charing Cross Road], Q's Legacy is an endearing memoir. This one is about how Helene Hanff learned to be a writer. "Q" is the Cambridge lecturer whose book she chooses one day at the library. She says: He spoke a language I could understand, and he had a sense of humour, which all by itself set him apart from the rest of the professors I'd been reading all morning. And he was Oxford-and-Cambridge. I decided I could study with him without necessarily agreeing with everything he show more said. Eventually, she acquired all his lectures.
She does a great job of showing how much work it really is to write a book, let alone one that will sell. I loved that she was self-taught - through reading lectures and the books that were referenced in the lectures. Her sense of humor shines throughout the book. A truly lovely read that makes me wonder why it sat on my shelves for so long.
If I live to be very old, all my memories of the glory days will grow vague and confused, till I won't be certain any of it really happened. But the books will be there, on my shelves and in my head - the one enduring reality I can be certain of till the day I die. show less
She does a great job of showing how much work it really is to write a book, let alone one that will sell. I loved that she was self-taught - through reading lectures and the books that were referenced in the lectures. Her sense of humor shines throughout the book. A truly lovely read that makes me wonder why it sat on my shelves for so long.
If I live to be very old, all my memories of the glory days will grow vague and confused, till I won't be certain any of it really happened. But the books will be there, on my shelves and in my head - the one enduring reality I can be certain of till the day I die. show less
There’s no denying Helene Hanff has a way with words. From the first pages Hanff’s infectious enthusiasm for books is evident, and almost as quickly we are introduced to her warm wit and perceptive observations.
For more than 20 years letters traverse the Atlantic ocean between Hanff in New York and Frank Doel, of Marks & Co booksellers in London’s famous Charing Cross Road. Hanff’s warmth and humour slowly breaks through Frank’s reserve, resulting in an enduring friendship. Along show more the way, members of Frank’s family, other Marks & Co employees and even neighbours are drawn into writing to Hanff as well.
Aside from books, the letters also offer plenty of comments on the rationing of goods, providing an interesting glimpse of post WWII life in England.
This edition also contains what is effectively a sequel – Hanff’s travel journal from when she finally makes the trip across the ocean to see the “England of English Literature”. Hanff’s joy at finally being in London, in meeting friends, both old and new, and in seeing the sights she’s read and dreamt of for decades easily communicates itself. You can’t help but smile with her.
Together these two collections form a memoir that is delightful, full of warmth and joy and the pleasures of good books and the places, both real and imagined, that they can take you. show less
For more than 20 years letters traverse the Atlantic ocean between Hanff in New York and Frank Doel, of Marks & Co booksellers in London’s famous Charing Cross Road. Hanff’s warmth and humour slowly breaks through Frank’s reserve, resulting in an enduring friendship. Along show more the way, members of Frank’s family, other Marks & Co employees and even neighbours are drawn into writing to Hanff as well.
Aside from books, the letters also offer plenty of comments on the rationing of goods, providing an interesting glimpse of post WWII life in England.
This edition also contains what is effectively a sequel – Hanff’s travel journal from when she finally makes the trip across the ocean to see the “England of English Literature”. Hanff’s joy at finally being in London, in meeting friends, both old and new, and in seeing the sights she’s read and dreamt of for decades easily communicates itself. You can’t help but smile with her.
Together these two collections form a memoir that is delightful, full of warmth and joy and the pleasures of good books and the places, both real and imagined, that they can take you. show less
Lists
Espistolary (3)
Ambleside Books (1)
Folio Society (1)
Short and Sweet (1)
1970s (1)
1970 Club (1)
Favourite Books (1)
Epistolary Books (1)
Female Author (1)
READ in 2023 (1)
Favourite Books (1)
Five star books (1)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 26
- Also by
- 2
- Members
- 11,370
- Popularity
- #2,067
- Rating
- 4.2
- Reviews
- 562
- ISBNs
- 153
- Languages
- 16
- Favorited
- 86
