Does better late than never still apply 84 years later?

An overdue book was returned to a Louisiana library this week — after it was checked out in 1934.

The Shreve Memorial Library posted on Facebook that a patron returned a copy of “Spoon River Anthology” by Edgar Lee Masters to the library’s main branch in Shreveport. Although a male name appears on the check-out card, the patron — who has not been identified — presumed the book was checked out by his mother in 1934 when she was 11 years old, as he found it when he was cleaning out her house.

The book, Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters, is a first edition from 1915. (Shreve Memorial Library / Facebook)


Reference Librarian and Assistant Manager Jackie Morales said in an interview she was “pleasantly surprised” when the book was returned.

The library’s policy for overdue books has always been $.05 a day, Morales said. Over 84 years, she said the book would have been a hefty $1,542.55 charge.

Luckily for the patron, the library has a $3 cap on late fees.

The book is a first edition from 1915.


“We might put it on display because there’s so much interest and to encourage people to return their books,” Morales said.

The book’s return has been called “appropriately spooky” since it comes ahead of Halloween.

Masters’ book is a collection of poems where the graveyard residents of the town Spoon River tell secrets about their past lives.

Although the library’s system was founded in 1923, a long-overdue book like this has never been returns, Morales said. Occasionally, books are returned two or three years late.


According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the record for the most overdue library book is held by Robert Walpole — he borrowed a book from Sidney Sussex College around 1667, and it was not returned for 288 years.