84 Charing Cross Road

I don't remember why I checked this out of the public library over fifty years ago, as a teenager, the first time I read it, but I do recall the comfortable feeling this story gve me then. When I saw it in a used bookstore not long ago I knew it was time for me to pick it up again. I really didn't remember any of the details of this long correspondence between the author and her London counterparts but I did pick up on the contrast between the letters of the brash American and those of the more restrained British forms of expression that give the the book much of its charm. The two main characters shared a love of out of print British literature but more than that they each came to feel a transatlantic love for one another over their twenty years correspondence. The economic hardships of early 1950' England were something the author was able to help with through gifts, and she also received a wealth of inspiration in return which she somehow transformed into teleplays and the like. At the end there is an unexpected development whch accounts for why these letters were assembled into this little book for the world to read (and later view in a film adaptation).

I liked rereading this very much, and felt as though I obtained a second-hand feeling for what it was like to come to know someone you have never met in person but have come to know on the page. Maybe there were some editorial decisions in picking which letters made it into the book which would enhance the sentiment. It isn't for everyone, I'm sure, but it worked for me.