Don't look ahead until you've read this letter, which I just found in an old file. Then let's see if you can figure out why I saved it -- what it reminds you of.
AustentoWoolf II was evidently the catalog I'd ordered from. The K. A. Porter was Katherine Anne Porter's own copy of Pride and Prejudice. I don't have it any more -- in keeping with my current urge to divest, I put it up on eBay a couple of months ago and the man who bought it told me he collects not Austen but Porter; he recognized her signature on the flyleaf so he knew it was genuine. So do add a comment to let me know if this letter reminded you of the book --
--
-
-
84, Charing Cross Road
by Helene Hanff
and if you've never read it, I envy you -- you have a treat ahead of you.
I confess I didn't think of 84, CCR right away--I was focusing on the K.A. Porter mention. But of course it all snapped into focus the minute you mentioned the title. I think I have copies of almost everything Helene Hanff wrote under her own name (not counting the TV scripts and children's textbooks, of course): 84, The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Q's Legacy, Letter from New York (a collection of radio scripts she wrote for the BBC Woman's Hour), and Apple of My Eye (her guidebook to NYC). The only one missing is Underfoot in Show Business.--And, sadly, she didn't make enough money even from 84 to see her through: She was said to be in considerable financial straits at the time of her death in 1997.
ReplyDelete