Book returned to US library 105 years late

There are many stories waiting on the shelves of bookstores and libraries. One of them, which took place at the Fort Collins Public Library in Colorado, caught attention.

A copy of Sir Walter Scott's classic Ivanhoe recently returned to library shelves after being missing for 105 years.

“The book was checked out and returned three times before it disappeared,” said Annaclaire Crumpton, librarian.

February 13, 1919. This was the date the copy should have been returned.

“105 years later, someone delivered. So here it is! It came to us from an unnamed woman, who was given the book by her brother, who found it in her mother's belongings in Kansas,” Crumpton continued.

The most impressive thing is that the book returned to the library intact. And more than the classic contained in the pages of the book, this copy of Ivanhoe records the history of the generations it passed through until it returned to its rightful place.

In 1919, the old Fort Collins Public Library, which was located in a building behind where the site is today, charged a two cents per day fine for late returns of copies. According to Crumpton's calculations, today the fine would be something around 14 thousand dollars, around R$71,300. Fortunately, the new library stopped charging the fine.

The expectation is that this book can be displayed in a local museum.

“We celebrate the magic of books and even more so when that magic has lasted more than a century,” said the librarian. “We are surrounded by them [livros] all the time. They are very precious,” she concluded.