Letters, 1949 - 1950 Summary

84, Charing Cross Road is Helene Hanff's collection of correspondence chronicling her long-distance friendships with the employees of a secondhand bookstore. The letters from Helene in New York City to the bookstore in London, England, span the time period of twenty years, October 1949 through October 1969.

Helene Hanff writes to the proprietors of the Marks & Co. bookstore in London, England, on October 5, 1949, in response to their advertisement in a literature review publication. The bookstore has advertised their services as "antiquarian booksellers," a term which slightly frightens Helene, but she presses on with her requests for secondhand books.

Helene receives her first letter from Marks & Co. The writer signs off only with the initials FPD and informs Helene that they have sent a few of the books she requested and will keep searching for the others. Helene responds a few weeks later that the...