The second book I managed to knock off during vacation was 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, an odd little volume of letters written by a New York City author and a London bookseller who continued to communicate over a twenty-year-period though they never met in the flesh. (Think an Internet relationship with a really long time-lag between connections.)
The book is a quick read and interesting to people like myself who are into books and mid-twentieth century history. Otherwise, I don't really see the attraction.
What's the kid-lit connection? Why am I mentioning it here? Well, folks, Helene Hanff was a scriptwriter who also wrote children's books.
Seriously, I just can't get away from kidlit.
2 comments:
I was just thinking about that book this morning ... also with a kidlit connection.
When I sold my first book, I imagined that the relationship between author and editor must be something like that of Hanff and the bookseller. Long chatty discussions on and around the task at hand, etc...
How my first editor must have suffered until I learned the realities.
Did you send her/him food at Christmas and Easter the way Hanff sent things to the booksellers at Charing Cross? You've got me speculating about all kinds of interesting situations. You could do a whole book about how you tried to model your relationship with your editor on Hanff's with Doel and how that went over.
The possibilities are limitless!
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