Overdue book finds its way back to library 51 years later

A book is back at a Massachusetts library after being returned to another facility 51 years past its due date.

The Worcester Public Library said its only copy of The Early Work of Aubrey Beardsley was due back May 22, 1973, but failed to show up on time.

Alex London, the genealogy and local history librarian with the Worcester Public Library, was recently contacted by a colleague at another library.

“I was contacted by a librarian at the Cambridge Public Library,” he told the Telegram & Gazette newspaper. “Someone had come into the library with the book and they were able to save it from essentially being thrown away.”

The book, published in 1899, was “was returned to its rightful place in our collection,” the Worcester Public Library said on social media.