Overdue Library Book Returned in San Francisco — 54 Years Late

A copy of Langston Hughes’s ‘The Best of Simple’ found its way into the return pile at SF’s Merced Branch Library… decades after it was checked out.

San Francisco has a network of 29 public libraries that collectively check out tens of thousands of books a year; it’s one of many reasons why SF is largely regarded as among the most well-read, bibliophilic metros in the nation. Just this past summer the San Francisco Public Library had its 12 millionth book checked out since opening its first branch — the location opened on June 7, 1879, in Pacific Hall which housed a collection of 6,000 books in a Bush Street office building in the Financial District — 144 years ago.

But, some public library books in SF inevitably take longer to find their way back home (by way of return bins) than others after their 21-day checkout window closes. A few never return at all. Up until recently, a hardback copy of Langston Hughes’s “The Best of Simple,” a collection of stories composed from his once weekly column in the Chicago Defender, that was checked out on January 20th, 1970 was counted among those bonded pages lost to the void.

Well, that book, which was north of 54 years overdue, was recently returned to the SFPL’s Merced Branch Library decades after it was checked out.

“Originally due on January 20, 1970, this book was recently returned to our Merced Branch,” reads an Instagram caption published by the public library system; the original checkout card from 1970 was still inside. The book was found after someone cleaned their parent’s house — and “it finally made its way back to [San Francisco Public Library].”

While 54 years does (and, indeed, is) a long time for any book to be checked out from a public library, it doesn’t hold a candle (calendar?) to a copy of James Clerk Maxwell’s “An Elementary Treatise on Electricity” that was returned in June of 2023 last to a Massachusetts library… almost 120 years overdue.

To the SFPL cardholder who checked out that copy of “The Best of Simple,” they can breathe a sigh of relief: All San Francisco Public Library branches discontinued charging fines for overdue books back in 2019.

And as the SFPL noted, this book’s glorious, surprising, novel-worthy return home is a serendipitous nudge of just that: “What a perfect way to remind you that we don’t fine you for late books!”

Feature Image: Courtesy of SF Public Works

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