Posted on 05/24/2023 1:00:44 PM PDT by Red Badger
VIDEO AT LINK............
May 24 (UPI) -- A California man who returned a library book that was found to be 96 years overdue said he believes the tome was originally checked out by his deceased wife's grandfather.
Jim Perry of Napa said he was going through boxes of books that had belonged to his wife, Sandra Learned Perry, when he came across a copy of Benson Lossing's A History of the United States from the St. Helena Public Library.
Perry said he believes the book was checked out by John McCormick, Sandra Learned Perry's grandfather, who would have been 55 when the tome was borrowed from the library in 1927.
Perry's story solves a mystery that has intrigued librarians since the book was returned by Perry earlier this month.
The Napa man said he was out of town for a family wedding, but happened to be streaming the KPIX-TV news when Library Director Christina Kreiden was interviewed about the long-overdue book returned by a "mystery man."
The report led Perry to get in touch with the library and offer details of the story.
"I thought it would be fun to just drop it off, and [the staff] would get a kick out of this book," Perry told the Napa Valley Register. "But I didn't realize it would have special significance for them."
Lossing, who died in 1891, wrote many books on US history, but his books are not all that collectible and can be had for a few bucks from the American Book Exchange.
Somebody’s gotta go back and get a $h*tload of dimes!
Mark
I have one that’s about 45 years overdue and not taking it back cause I don’t want to be on the news
George Washington checked a copy of an English Language translated first edition of Vattel’s Law of Nations out of the New York Public Library early in his first term. Never returned it.
Mount Vernon staff recently bought a replacement first edition and handed it over to the NYPL, no backsies.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/may/20/george-washington-library-book
Thanks Red Badger. Probably some racist tome steeped in the racism of the racist white author. /rimshot
Gavin Newsom plans to levy an overdue charge large enough to balance the California state gov’t budget.
These types of stories show up every so often. I have old books that I bought from library book sales that still have the library information on them. I don’t think most of these books would fall in the “did not return“ category. I think most of them would probably be books that were sold at book sales. I have at least 20 in my collection.
Recently I got from the local Goodwill, a pristine, like new copy of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn that was stamped inside ‘REMOVED FROM THE LIBRARY OF ________ MIDDLE SCHOOL.”
Apparently they don’t like Mark Twain any more...........
Lt. Bookman should marry Ms. DeGroot. It would be a storybook wedding.
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