Book returned to Australian library – 150 years overdue

An Australian public library has had a book returned an estimated 150 years late after being found behind a wall during a home renovation.

The book, Antiquities of Athens, published in 1858, was returned to the library in the seaside town of Kiama, south of Sydney, by a man who had found it inside a tea crate bricked into a sealed fireplace

“We’ve never had anything that old come back to us,” library manager Michelle Hudson said.

“I follow lots of libraries on social media and often you’ll get things that are maybe 30 or 40 years old when they’re cleaning out estates and stuff like that.”

The book’s finder did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The late return fine would be around A$28,000 (US$19,500), allowing for inflation, Hudson said. That was calculated on the British three pence a week overdue fee that was printed on the inside cover of the book, along with a list of rules that applied when the library opened in 1872.

But Hudson said there was no way of tracing the final borrower who had accrued the debt. The library journal from the 1870s that recorded who borrowed a book and when had been lost.

“Unfortunately, we have a missing link. There’s nothing in the book that tells us who the last borrower was,” Hudson said.

Library rules in the 1870s stated that a book had to be returned and an overdue debt paid before another book could be borrowed.

“Maybe that’s why they never returned it to us,” Hudson said.

Under the antiquated rules of the day, up to three books could be borrowed by households in which at least six members were “known to be able to read”.

The book, which has some water damage from its years under a chimney, was marked as No 506 in the library’s original collection of around 1,000 books, Hudson said.

She expects the book was lost within a few years of the library opening.

The returned book will be displayed in 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.