Book Returned to Library 72 Years After Due Date
A New York library is seeing the results of the COVID-cleaning many of us have done, after an overdue book was returned quite a bit of time after it was due.
John Moss, of Mattituck, said he isn't sure how the book Great Heart: The Life Story of Theodore Roosevelt ended up in his possession, but he recently found it in a plastic crate of books he had been keeping in storage.
Moss said the book might have been at his parents' house when he cleaned it out in 2013, or it could've been one of a few dozen books he has accumulated from yard sales and book stores over the years.
When he returned it to the Amagansett Free Library, where they determined the due back date for the book to have been April 5, 1949.
"It is a first edition from 1919 and has the original library bookplate, as well as the circulation policy on the back cover," Lauren Nichols, the director of the library, told The Southampton Press. "I've only seen one or two items at the library with these features, but none with both."
In 1949, the late fees racked up what would've been $262, at the rate of one penny a day when it was borrowed in 1949. The library has since done away with late fees, but that would've been about $2,650 today.
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