The Helene Hanff Trilogy You Should Read This Fall
Three short reads that are better than any 800-page tome
If you recognize the name Helene Hanff, it is likely from either her 1970 New York Times bestseller 84, Charing Cross Road or the excellent 1987 film adaptation of the book starring Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft. It’s far more likely, however, that while you may have seen the film you still don’t recognize her name. That is a shame and should be corrected this fall with a reading of three of her best-known books.
It may surprise even those who have read 84, Charing Cross Road that there are other books that she wrote, when in fact there are several. The three I am recommending are 84, Charing Cross Road (1970), The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street (1973), and Q’s Legacy: A Delightful Account of a Lifelong Love Affair with Books (1985). Others include Underfoot in Show Business (1961), Apple of My Eye (1977), and Letter from New York (1992). There is a reason I chose the books I did; they form a trilogy, though the one published last actually occurred first.
Of the three books, the one you may already know actually isn’t a book in the usual sense; rather, 84, Charing Cross Road is a collection of the correspondence between Ms. Hanff and London bookseller Frank Doel between 1949 and 1969. It is a slim volume (only 97…
