Son returns mom’s 72-year overdue book to New York Public Library

A week before Christmas, a man returned a copy of Igor Stravinsky’s 1936 autobiography to a clerk at The New York Public Library's 455 5th Ave. location.

The clerk immediately contacted the branch’s director.

“They called and said, ‘hey, are you able to come down?’” said Billy Parrott, director of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library.

The book was 72 years overdue, making it the most overdue book Parrott has ever heard of being returned to the branch.

“We routinely get stuff [returned], all the time, from the ‘80s or the ‘90s but rarely stuff from mid-century,” said Parrott, who loves learning the stories behind such superlatively overdue items.

When this one was checked out from the Bronx’s 160th St. Woodstock branch, Harry Truman was president, the “Red Scare” was all over American news and “Singin’ in the Rain” was about to hit theaters. Stravinsky was 69 years old. The 455 5th Ave. NYPL location was not yet built, and the woman who checked out the book was working towards a music degree at Hunter College, according to Parrott. Neither she nor her son, who Parrott said returned the book, could be reached for comment by press time.

It was April 4, 1952. The book was due back two weeks later.

On Feb. 9, 1953, the tardy patron was mailed a formal notice, signed by the NYPL’s private investigator Herbert Bouscher (who later became head of its microfilm services, according to an obituary), requesting she return the book to the branch she borrowed it from and pay the fine of 1 cent per day plus a handling charge, which together came to $3.25.

Although she went on to work for a time at an NYPL location in the Bronx, she never did return the book, or pay the fine, said Parrott.

NYPL abolished late fees in Oct. 2021.

The formal notice, in its original envelope, with its original prepaid business reply, was returned by her son alongside the book this month, over seven decades after his mother checked it out.

She’ll be the last library patron to ever borrow that book.

“It’s not going back in circulation,” said Parrott.

He said the book isn’t particularly rare or special, and none of NYPL’s reference collections are currently in need of a copy, so instead Parrott plans to hang onto it “for the curiosity and engaging story.”