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Helen Hanff grew up during the depression in Philadelphia. She was in a family that lived for the theater - her father was a shirt salesman who took the family to plays every week. All she ever wanted to do was to be a playwright. She could only afford a year of college, but all her life continued to learn as an avid reader. She left Philadelphia for New York, and through the 1940s wrote over 20 plays, none ever produced. She supported herself precariously by writing television scripts and children's books. And she read - one wall of her studio apartment was filled with books, almost all from the London antiquarian bookshop Marks & Co. It was that bookshop and her connection with it that brought her fame. She started a correspondence with the shop, and in particular with Frank Doel, the shop's chief buyer. This correspondence, carried on for 20 years from 1949 to 1969, was published in 1970, and was the basis for a British play, then Broadway, and the movie 84 Charing Cross Road (1986) with Anne Bancroft, as Helene and Anthony Hopkins as Frank Doel. Twenty years of hand-to-mouth writing, with an overflowing ashtray and a near-by gin bottle - repeated pleas from Marks & Co. and Frank to visit them in London could only be realized after the success of the book. By then it was too late - the bookshop was boarded up and Frank was dead of peritonitis. There is a brass plaque on the site of the former shop, in memorial to a remarkable correspondence. 84 Charing Cross Road is published with it's sequel 'The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street', which describes the events of Helene Hanff finally getting to London. It is also published in 'The Helene Hanff Omnibus' by Warner Books If you want more information, Angela Garry runs a great
Helene Hanff site, containing information on other books by HH, film and book comments,
including details of Angela meeting the lady herself. Well worth a visit.
Aberaham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a Kentucky farmers hut. In the 65 years he was to live, he was to garnish a rupation as one of the greatest Presidents of all time, although his early years would not have suggested it. As a young man he didn't know what he want to do, drifting from job to job - carpenter, riverboat man, store clerk, soldier, merchant, postmaster, blacksmith and surveyor. But two jobs were to lead him to the White house :- laywer and politician. August 3rd, 1846 saw Lincoln elect to Congress as the sole Illinois Whig congressman. He held the position for only 2 years before return to his law practice. It's hard to reconcile the fact that his next attempt at public office was that of Senator in 1858. He failed, loosing out to Stephen Douglas. The next time the two would meet in electorial battle, would be two years later, with the White House as the prize. And as history relates, the winner would not be Stephen Douglas. I've forgotton the quote, but I think it went something like "I have not dictated great events, rather great events have dictated me." In some ways this is very true of Lincoln as President. He did let his lack of experience and knowledge cause him to put aside his own decesions in favour of others, but as his term in office continued, a transformation of self confidence can be seen. He began to pull the strings as a very suitle puppet master, but sometimes was limited by his lack of choices. Notably in his choice of commanders. Given more choice McClellan would not have commanded the northern armies for so long. Does Lincoln deserve his reputation? Well, yes, but not as polished a reputation as he currently holds. The civil was, from Lincolns point of view, was never really about the Slave issue. He fought it to maintain the union.
From the 1916 Rising, the troubled Treaty negotiations and the Civil War, right through to his retirement, de Valera both defined and divided Ireland. Love him, or loath him, the story of Eamon de Valera is the story of 20th century Ireland. Coogan's book, not a light read by any means, shines it's light into area's that are not normally dwelled apon in Irish schools, and goes some way to explaining why Ireland is the Ireland we know. "That Ireland that we dreamed of would be the home
of a people who valued material wealth only as the basis of right living, of a people who
were satisfied with frugal comfort and devoted their leisure to the things of the spirit -
a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages
would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the
contests of athletic youths and the laughter of happy maidens, whose firesides would be
forums for the wisdom of serene old age. It would, in a word, be the home of a people
living the life that God desires that man should live."
In 1976, Carl Sagan was a member of the Viking Lander Imaging Flight Team. From talking to the press and media, he found that they believed that there audiences would loose interest as Mars was revealed to be less and less like Earth; that the possibilities of life were all that interested the viewing population. They believed that viewers had little interested in the science, discovery's and wonders that were being revealed by projects such as Viking. Sagan, and B. Gentry Lee, the Viking Data Analysis and Mission Planning Director, believed them wrong and set out to prove it. The result was a television series called Cosmos, and a book, also of the same name. The book blows the dust off our scientific history, causes ideas to dance in our heads, and shows us what was, what is, and what might be.
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Angela Garry's Helene Hanff website
