The writer Helene Hanff came to fame after publishing her years of correspondence with an antiquarian bookseller in London. To find just the books she wanted, it was easier to reach out across the Atlantic then to battle the bookstores of New York.
I wonder what Helene would have thought of the network created by Amazon.com with small, independent book sellers, putting out-of-print and hard-to-find books at our fingertips.
Yesterday I received a book that I had wanted to read for some time. It’s out of print and difficult to find. But through Amazon.com, I not only found the book, but acquired a first edition collectible with the dust jacket still on it. I felt just a twinge of what Helene must have felt when she found that first package on her doorstep and excitedly ripped it open to find a new, old friend.
The amusing part of all this? The book that I bought. It’s Underfoot in Show Business, written by… Helene Hanff.
