150-year-overdue library book returned to Australian town

A book that vanished from an Australian public library roughly 150 years ago has finally been returned, after spending decades sealed inside a bricked-up fireplace, according to a report by news agency AP. The volume, discovered during a recent home renovation, arrived back at its original library encrusted with water damage from years of confinement. The librarian involved called the return unlike anything she had encountered before.

The book, titled "Antiquities of Athens" and first published in 1858, was returned last week to the public library in Kiama, a coastal town in Australia, by local resident Ross Simmons. Kiama Library manager Michelle Hudson said Simmons had stumbled upon the volume tucked inside a tea crate that had been sealed within a fireplace during recent renovation work at his home.

"We've never had anything that old come back to us," Hudson said on Thursday. She added that libraries occasionally receive decades-old returns when people clear out deceased relatives' estates. Nothing had come close to this in terms of age, she said.

Simmons told AP he believed the book had originally been borrowed by his great-great-grandfather, John Simmons, who once lived in the house where the book was later found. "I'm making an assumption. He was in residence in the cottage around about that time and his children were probably too young," Simmons said.

The Kiama library first opened in 1872. The recovered book had been catalogued as No. 506 in the library's original collection, which comprised close to 1,000 titles at the time. Hudson believes the book likely disappeared from the collection within a few years of the library's opening.

Using the original late-fee structure printed inside the book's cover, Hudson calculated the fine. The charge was a British three pence per week overdue. Adjusted for inflation, the penalty for such a lengthy delay would amount to roughly 28,000 Australian dollars, or close to $19,500. She clarified that the library has no intention of pursuing any such payment.

The identity of the original borrower may never be known. Hudson explained that the library's records from the 1870s documenting who had borrowed which books have long since been lost. "Unfortunately, we have a missing link. There's nothing in the book that tells us who the last borrower was," she said.

Library regulations from that era required borrowers to return any outstanding book and clear their overdue dues before being permitted to borrow another. Hudson speculated that this rule may explain why the book was never brought back. "Maybe that's why they never returned it to us," she said.

The report also highlighted some unusual borrowing rules from the 1870s. Households could borrow up to three books at a time, only if at least six members of that household were confirmed to be able to read. Another rule barred library staff from lending books to individuals who showed up in a "state of intoxication."

Simmons said he had no clear explanation for why his ancestor, an English immigrant who had also served as an alderman in Kiama's municipal government, never returned the borrowed book. The 77-year-old added that he was not particularly worried about facing any consequences over the matter.

The century-and-a-half-old book will not return to general circulation. It will be preserved as part of the library's local history collection. "We're not going to allow it to go back out again. We don't want to wait another 150 years for this book to be returned," Hudson said.