Overdue Book Checked Out Before WWII Ended Is Back

A library book has been returned nearly 82 years after it was borrowed from the San Antonio Public Library. The book—Your Child, His Family, and Friends, by marriage and family counselor Frances Bruce Strain—was checked out in July 1943 and returned this past June from a person in Oregon, the library said in a news release, per the AP. "After the recent death of my father, I inherited a few boxes of books he left behind," the person wrote in a letter that was shared by the library on Instagram and signed with the initials PAAG.

The book was a guide for parents on helping their children navigate personal relationships and was checked out when the person's father was 11 years old. "The book must have been borrowed by my Grandmother, Maria del Socorro Aldrete Flores (Cortez)," the person wrote. "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 inside cover of the book was stamped with the warning that the fine for overdue books was 3 cents a day; not accounting for inflation, the penalty would amount to nearly $900. Three cents in July 1943 amounts to 56 cents in today's money, per the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' Inflation Calculator. That would add up to more than $16,000. However, the library said in a news release that it eliminated overdue fines in 2021.

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The library noted that the book is in "good" condition. It'll be on display in the city's central library through August, then will be donated to the Friends of the San Antonio Public Library group and sold to benefit the library. Eight decades may seem like a long time for an overdue library book, but it's nowhere near the record. Guinness World Records says the most overdue library book was returned to Sidney Sussex College, part of the UK's University of Cambridge, in 1956. That book was borrowed in 1668, some 288 years earlier. No fine was extracted.