Better late than never.
A very overdue library book was returned to the San Antonio Public Library. It was just 82 years late.
The book called “Your Child, His Family, and Friends” was checked out in July 1943. Someone recently returned with a letter that said they found it in their father’s belongings after his death and “decided to send it back.”
The writer of the letter believes it was originally checked out by their grandmother when their father was 11 years old.
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The letter went on to express gratitude and hope that there wouldn’t be any late fees. Luckily, the San Antonio Public Library did away with late fees for overdue books in 2021.
The book is now on display at the library’s central branch. It will eventually be sold in a used bookstore, with proceeds going back to the San Antonio Public Library.
It’s not the most overdue book to be returned; some have been MIA for more than a century.
U.S. & World
A library in Idaho received a copy of “New Chronicles of Rebecca,” still in good condition, in 2021. It was checked out in 1910.
The book “Famous Composers” borrowed in 1919 was returned to a Minnesota library more than a century later in 2023.
And the longest book? “An Elementary Treatise on Electricity,” was checked out in Massachusetts in 1907, and was returned after it was discovered in a book donation to a rare books curator at West Virginia University in 2023.
