A New Hampshire man has turned in one of the most overdue library books in U.S. history — 132 years overdue.
John Hanson recently returned a magazine to the Concord Public Library 48,220 days after it had been checked out — about 48 years before he was born.
Mr. Hanson, 84, said he discovered the September 1894 issue of The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine among other items during a move from Boscawen, New Hampshire, to Barrington in 1966.
The well-maintained magazine features a mix of writings typical for its era, including poetry, essays and news. It also bears a bookplate identifying it as the property of the Concord Public Library and reminding borrowers that it “may be kept for one week.”
He’s not sure how it ended up in his hands: His parents did not have library cards, and his late first wife, Carol, frequently checked out library books and would not have let a borrowed item go unreturned for so long.
“So I don’t know if it’s something that I got as a gift that was given to me. Or did I pick this up from a pile of free books on the side of the road to read? I honestly don’t know,” Mr. Hanson told NBC News.
The long overdue item would have carried a $12,055 fine, but Mr. Hanson returned it during the library’s “fine freeze” that erased fees.
“Yeah, when I saw that, I said to myself, ’Boy, this would be a good time to bring it back,’” he told NBC.
When Mr. Hanson told library archivist Jennifer Needham that he was returning a long overdue magazine, she thought it was probably a couple of decades past due — not more than a century, she said.
She pointed to one article urging urban schools to build playgrounds for children.
“That’s one thing that was really interesting,” Ms. Needham told NBC. “I didn’t know this history — that they were arguing that more city schools should have outdoor spaces for children to play. It sounds like during that time, that just wasn’t a priority. It’s interesting that they would play inside then.”
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