84, Charing Cross Road Read Online Free Page A
Author: Helene Hanff
Tags: Humor, books, Letters, Correspondence
sensational but we’re told they’re good enough to assure us a few months’ run, so I went apartment-hunting yesterday and found a nice little “bed-sitter” in Knightsbridge, I don’t have the address here, I’ll send it or you can call my mother.
We have no food problems, we eat in restaurants and hotels, the best places like Claridge’s get all the roast beef and chops they want. The prices are astronomical but the exchange rate is so good we can afford it. Of course if I were the English I would loathe us, instead of which they are absolutely wonderful to us, we’re invited to everybody’s home and everybody’s club.
The only thing we can’t get is sugar or sweets in any form, for which I personally thank God, I intend to lose ten pounds over here.
Write me.
Love,
Maxine
Inside the shop—1970s
----
14 East 95th St.
September 15, 1951
Maxine, bless your golden heart, what a peachy description, you write better than I do.
I called your mother for your address, she said to tell you the sugar cubes and Nestle bars are on the way, I thought you were dieting?
I don’t like to sound bitter, but I would like to know what YOU ever did that the good Lord lets YOU browse around my bookshop while I’m stuck on 95th St. writing the TV “Adventures of Ellery Queen.” Did I tell you we’re not allowed to use a lipstick-stained cigarette for a clue? We’re sponsored by the Bayuk Cigar Co. and we’re not allowed to mention the word “cigarette.” We can have ashtrays on the set but they can’t have any cigarette butts in them. They can’t have cigar butts either, they’re not pretty. All an ashtray can have in it is a wrapped, unsmoked Bayuk cigar.
And you hobnobbing with Gielgud at Claridge’s.
Write me about London—the tube, the Inns of Court, Mayfair, the corner where the Globe Theatre stood, anything, I’m not fussy. Write me about Knightsbridge, it sounds green and gracious in Eric Coates’ London Suite. Or London Again Suite.
xxxx
hh
----
14 East 95th St.
October 15, 1951
WHAT KIND OF A PEPYS’ DIARY DO YOU CALL THIS?
this is not pepys’ diary, this is some busybody editor’s miserable collection of EXCERPTS from pepys’ diary may he rot.
i could just spit.
where is jan. 12, 1668, where his wife chased him out of bed and round the bedroom with a red-hot poker?
where is sir w. pen’s son that was giving everybody so much trouble with his Quaker notions? ONE mention does he get in this whole pseudo-book. and me from Philadelphia.
i enclose two limp singles, i will make do with this thing till you find me a real Pepys. THEN i will rip up this ersatz book, page by page, AND WRAP THINGS IN IT.
HH
P.S. Fresh eggs or powdered for Xmas? I know the powdered last longer but “fresh farm eggs flown from Denmark” have got to taste better. You want to take a vote on it?
----
Marks & Co., Booksellers
84, Charing Cross Road
London, W.C.2
20th October, 1951
Miss Helene Hanff
14 East 95th Street
New York 28, New York
U.S.A.
Dear Miss Hanff,
First of all, let me apologize for the Pepys. I was honestly under the impression that it was the complete Braybrooke edition and I can understand how you must have felt when you found your favorite passages missing. I promise to look at the next reasonably priced copy that comes along, and if it contains the passage you mention in your letter I will send it along.
I am glad to say I have managed to dig out a few books for you from a private library that we have just bought. There is a Leigh Hunt which includes most of the essays you like, also a Vulgate New Testament which I hope will be O.K. I have also included a Dictionary to the Vulgate which you might find useful. There is also a volume of 20th century English essays, though it contains only one by Hilaire Belloc and nothing to do with bathrooms. Enclosed is our invoice for 17s 6d, or approximately $2.50, all that is due us on the books as you had a credit balance with us of
We have no food problems, we eat in restaurants and hotels, the best places like Claridge’s get all the roast beef and chops they want. The prices are astronomical but the exchange rate is so good we can afford it. Of course if I were the English I would loathe us, instead of which they are absolutely wonderful to us, we’re invited to everybody’s home and everybody’s club.
The only thing we can’t get is sugar or sweets in any form, for which I personally thank God, I intend to lose ten pounds over here.
Write me.
Love,
Maxine
Inside the shop—1970s
----
14 East 95th St.
September 15, 1951
Maxine, bless your golden heart, what a peachy description, you write better than I do.
I called your mother for your address, she said to tell you the sugar cubes and Nestle bars are on the way, I thought you were dieting?
I don’t like to sound bitter, but I would like to know what YOU ever did that the good Lord lets YOU browse around my bookshop while I’m stuck on 95th St. writing the TV “Adventures of Ellery Queen.” Did I tell you we’re not allowed to use a lipstick-stained cigarette for a clue? We’re sponsored by the Bayuk Cigar Co. and we’re not allowed to mention the word “cigarette.” We can have ashtrays on the set but they can’t have any cigarette butts in them. They can’t have cigar butts either, they’re not pretty. All an ashtray can have in it is a wrapped, unsmoked Bayuk cigar.
And you hobnobbing with Gielgud at Claridge’s.
Write me about London—the tube, the Inns of Court, Mayfair, the corner where the Globe Theatre stood, anything, I’m not fussy. Write me about Knightsbridge, it sounds green and gracious in Eric Coates’ London Suite. Or London Again Suite.
xxxx
hh
----
14 East 95th St.
October 15, 1951
WHAT KIND OF A PEPYS’ DIARY DO YOU CALL THIS?
this is not pepys’ diary, this is some busybody editor’s miserable collection of EXCERPTS from pepys’ diary may he rot.
i could just spit.
where is jan. 12, 1668, where his wife chased him out of bed and round the bedroom with a red-hot poker?
where is sir w. pen’s son that was giving everybody so much trouble with his Quaker notions? ONE mention does he get in this whole pseudo-book. and me from Philadelphia.
i enclose two limp singles, i will make do with this thing till you find me a real Pepys. THEN i will rip up this ersatz book, page by page, AND WRAP THINGS IN IT.
HH
P.S. Fresh eggs or powdered for Xmas? I know the powdered last longer but “fresh farm eggs flown from Denmark” have got to taste better. You want to take a vote on it?
----
Marks & Co., Booksellers
84, Charing Cross Road
London, W.C.2
20th October, 1951
Miss Helene Hanff
14 East 95th Street
New York 28, New York
U.S.A.
Dear Miss Hanff,
First of all, let me apologize for the Pepys. I was honestly under the impression that it was the complete Braybrooke edition and I can understand how you must have felt when you found your favorite passages missing. I promise to look at the next reasonably priced copy that comes along, and if it contains the passage you mention in your letter I will send it along.
I am glad to say I have managed to dig out a few books for you from a private library that we have just bought. There is a Leigh Hunt which includes most of the essays you like, also a Vulgate New Testament which I hope will be O.K. I have also included a Dictionary to the Vulgate which you might find useful. There is also a volume of 20th century English essays, though it contains only one by Hilaire Belloc and nothing to do with bathrooms. Enclosed is our invoice for 17s 6d, or approximately $2.50, all that is due us on the books as you had a credit balance with us of
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