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Published on January 01, 2025
Historic Return, 72-Year Overdue Library Book Finds Its Way Back to Midtown NYPL BranchSource: Wikipedia/Jim.henderson, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Just in time for the holidays, an overdue library book saga that could make any procrastinator feel better about their own delays came to a close in Midtown, New York. A tome of music history, "Stravinsky: An Autobiography", checked out in 1952, was returned to The New York Public Library's Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library after an astonishing 72-year detour. In a statement obtained by Gothamist, Billy Parrott, the library branch's director, recounted how seldom items from mid-century make their way back, thus making the stray book's return quite the extraordinary event.

The literary artifact was lent out from the Bronx's 160th St. Woodstock branch when Harry Truman presided over the nation and the "Red Scare" dominated American news cycles. The original borrower, working toward a music degree at Hunter College, never managed to return it, and for whatever reasons, apparently did not pay the accumulated fine, which would have totaled $3.25 at the time. Parrott shared these bits of history in an interview to both Gothamist and Patch.com.

According to a Patch.com report, the book bore marks of appreciation and longstanding use when it was returned by the son of the original borrower, revealing a tangible slice of New York history. He provided further context for the book's backdrop, noting his grandfather's drugstore near the Collyer brothers' brownstone and their collection of pianos, linking the narrative to the city's past cultural tapestry.

While overdue fees were a mere penny a day back in 1952, capping at 25 cents, the NYPL abolished fines in 2021 to encourage material use, sparing the son any late fees upon return. This tale of a long-lost library book inevitably brings a piece of nostalgia to the surface amid digitized library systems. "Whenever we get overdue books like this, I'm always more interested in the story, and where the book has been," Parrott told Patch. Parrott intends to hold onto the book due to its unique background and interest rather than circulate it again.