It's amazing what Helene Hanff has given to so many booksellers.
Just yesterday a customer e-mailed to tell me how happy he was with the book he purchased and to tell me that he had made his first E-Bay sale and would use my communication skills as a template for his customer relations. After telling him that he had made my day, especially since his book had spent 12 days in USPS Purgatory, I suggested that he rent 84 Charing Cross Road explaining that I consider Helene the patron saint of my business.
For all that 84 has given me, Helene's first book Underfoot in Show Business and her last Letter from New York gave me so much more. Both showed me how a smart, caring woman carved her place in the city where she wanted to live and shaped a career that started at The Theater Guild as an aspiring playwright and ended with a series of books and BBC broadcasts (Letter from New York) that opened her home and life to us all.
Today I discovered The Ashland Book Company and Anita's musings on Helene - IT'S HELENE HANFF'S FAULT. She's right. It is Helene's fault. Helene is the customer I'm trying to please - every day.
"If you happen to pass by 84, Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me? I owe it so much."
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