海角大神

The arrival of 2017 brings a landmark anniversary for bibliophiles. In 1987 鈥� 30 years ago this year 鈥� 鈥�84, Charing Cross Road鈥� opened in movie theaters, treating viewers to what could be the best film about reading ever made.

Not that there鈥檚 much competition in that category, since the quiet drama of being lost in a book is a hard thing to translate to the screen.

But 鈥�84, Charing Cross Road鈥� managed to pull it off, drawing on some great source material, and two stellar co-stars who portrayed real-life characters. Anne Bancroft played Helene Hanff, a New York freelance writer and voracious reader whose hunt for cheap vintage volumes in 1949 prompted a long-distance, 20-year correspondence with Frank Doel (Anthony Hopkins), who helped manage Marks & Co., an antiquarian bookstore at 84, Charing Cross Road in London.聽

Their letters, brightened by the odd-couple chemistry between the passionately opinionated Hanff and the strait-laced Englishman Doel, were eventually published in 1970 as 鈥�84, Charing Cross Road,鈥� later adapted as the movie of the same name.

One of the recurring themes of the letters, which is beautifully explored in the film, is Hanff鈥檚 inability to visit Marks & Co. in person. On her meager freelancer鈥檚 income, she can鈥檛 afford the travel fare to England, a predicament that forces her to experience the sceptered isle exclusively through its literature. But that odyssey, guided by everyone from Samuel Pepys to Laurence Sterne to Hilaire Belloc, unfolds as an adventure equal to 鈥� or perhaps better than 鈥� any physical journey.

Ironically, the publication of 鈥�84, Charing Cross Road鈥澛� made it possible for Hanff to cross the Atlantic. The book proved popular in England, where Hanff worked to adapt it for the BBC. 鈥淨鈥檚 Legacy,鈥� a sequel to 鈥�84, Charing Cross Road,鈥� was published in 1985, explaining Hanff鈥檚 subsequent adventures inspired by her letters to Doel.

Hanff died in 1997, and much has changed in the book trade since she recruited Doel to fill her shopping list. Thanks to the internet, digital versions of many of the old texts Hanff loved are online for free. What鈥檚 more, with the rise of online retailing, the kind of personal back-and-forth between customer and seller exemplified by the Hanff-Doel letters now seems like a thing of the past.

But what remains timeless, even in an age of digital books, is the pleasure Hanff took in traditional volumes. 鈥淚 do love secondhand books that open to the page some previous owner read oftenest,鈥� she told Doel. 鈥淭he day (William) Hazlitt came he opened to 鈥業 hate to read new books,鈥� and I hollered 鈥楥omrade鈥� to whoever owned it before me.鈥�

After Doel sent her a collection of Robert Louis Stevenson鈥檚 essays, Hanff was downright giddy. 鈥淚鈥檓 almost afraid to handle such soft vellum and heavy cream-colored pages,鈥� she wrote. 鈥淏eing used to the dead-white paper and stiff cardboardy covers of American books, I never knew a book could be such a joy to the touch.鈥�

In her final years, Hanff reflected on what her letters to Doel had brought her. 鈥淚f I live to be very old,鈥� she wrote, 鈥渁ll my memories of the glory days will grow vague and confused, till I won鈥檛 be certain any of it really happened. But the books will be there, on my shelves and in my head 鈥� the one enduring reality I can be certain of till the day I die.鈥�

鈥� Danny Heitman, a columnist for The Advocate newspaper in Louisiana, is the author of 鈥淎 Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House.鈥澛犅�