4 days ago
A library in Texas has been reunited with a book that was borrowed nearly 82 years ago
A LIBRARY BOOK has been returned nearly 82 years after it was borrowed from a library in Texas.
The library received a letter along with the book explaining that a grandchild believes it was their grandmother who borrowed the book eight decades ago.
The book was Your Child, His Family, And Friends by marriage and family counsellor Frances Bruce Strain.
It was checked out in July 1943 and returned this summer to the San Antonio Public Library.
'After the recent death of my father, I inherited a few boxes of books he left behind,' the returner wrote in a letter that was shared by the library.
The book was a guide for parents on helping their children navigate personal relationships.
It was checked out when the person's father was 11 years old. The returner said: 'The book must have been borrowed by my Grandmother, Maria del Socorro Aldrete Flores (Cortez).'
'In that year, she transferred to Mexico City to work at the US Embassy. She must have taken the book with her, and some 82 years later, it ended up in my possession.'
The person who returned the book wrote in the letter: 'I hope there is no late fee for it because Grandma won't be able to pay for it anymore.'
The library said in a news release that it eliminated overdue fines in 2021.
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The inside cover of the book was stamped with the warning that the fine for overdue books was three cents a day.
Not accounting for inflation, the penalty would amount to nearly $900. In today's money with inflation, three cents in July 1943 amounts to 56 cents, which would add up to more than $16,000.
The library noted that the book is in 'good condition'.
It will be on display in the city's central library throughout August. It will then be donated to the Friends of San Antonio Public Library and sold to benefit the library.
The book had received reviews in various newspapers at the time of its publication.
The Cincinnati Enquirer described it in June 1943 as a 'complete guidebook to the personal relationships of the child with his family and the outside world'.
The New York Times noted a month later that Strain was a psychologist and mother of two who was 'best known for her wise, sensitive, but unsentimental presentation of sex education'.
Eight decades may be a long time for an overdue library book, but it is nowhere near the record.
Guinness World Records says the most overdue library book was returned to Sidney Sussex College at the University of Cambridge in 1956.
It was borrowed in 1668, some 288 years earlier.
