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A Passion for Books

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by
andave_ya
, 06-27-2007 at 06:22 PM (1907 Views)
My sister had a birthday party today. But that's not what I want to talk about. I have this book called "A Passion for Books" and this is an excerpt in it from Helene Hanff's "84 Charing Cross Road" which is a collection of letters between a London bookseller and an American bibliophile,

October 15,1950

WELL!!
All I have to say to YOU, Frank Doel, is we live in depraved, destructive and degenerate times when a bookshop--a BOOKSHOP--starts tearing up beautiful old books to use as wrapping paper. I said to John Henry when he stepped out of it:
"Would you believe a thing like that, Your Eminence?" and he said he wouldn't. You tore that book up in the middle of a major battle and I don't even know which war it was.
The Newman arrived almost a week ago and I'm just beginning to recover. I keep it on the table with me all day, every now and then I stop typing and reach over and touch it. Not because it's a first edition; I just never saw a book so beautiful. I feel vaguely guilty about owning it. All that gleaming leather and gold stamping and beautiful type belongs in the pine-panelled library of an English country home; it wants to be read by the fire in a gentleman's leather easy chair -- not a secondhand studio couch in a one-room hovel in a broken-down brownstone front.
I want the Q[Arthur Quiller-Couch] anthology. I'm not sure how much it was, I lost your last letter. I think it was about two bucks, I'll enclose two singles; if I owe you more let me know.
Why don't you wrap it in pages LCXII and LCXIII so I can at least find out who won the battle and what war it was?

HH
P.S. Have you got Sam Pepys' diary of there? I need him for long winter evenings.


I love the way she talks about books!!
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Comments

  1. GrayFoxDown's Avatar
    You'll love the film version of 84 Charing Cross Road which starred Ann Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins (1986); it was quite faithful to the novel. However, andave, rather than rely on a quote you should have told us what YOU think of the novel. For instance, how the story reflects the unseen/ separate lives we share at Lit.Com, only knowing each other (as I said in a post) through a construction of words...indeed, how most people, everywhere, are only known to one another merely through words. Regards, Michael

    (PS- By the way: what is a girl your age doing, listening to the likes of Fred Astaire and Jo Stafford? I'd thought I was the only screwball kid that once did things like that. GOOD FOR YOU!!!)
  2. Countess's Avatar
    Funny...Anthony mentioned this book to me, and said I would like it - that it paralleled our relationship in many ways. I still haven't read it, though I haven't stopped thinking of Anthony. He's perpetually in my mind; I just no longer give voice to those ruminations. Thanks for the excerpt - C
  3. andave_ya's Avatar
    GFD~I haven't read "84 Charing Cross." I should though, and I'll look for it at the library. The movie sounds good too. If I find it, I'll post a part two....................Fred Astaire is a perfect gentleman of a guy. So classy with Ginger and their dancing! I'm in heaven! And Jo Stafford, what a voice! Anyways, I'm glad I'm not the only kid who listened to them. They're so neat! Then of course there's Gene Kelly, the Pied Pipers, Doris Day, Cary Grant.......
    Countess~thanks for commenting. Anthony suggested "Passion for Books" or "84 Charing Cross Road"? Hope you're doing ok.