Library books which were overdue by more than a century have finally been returned – in “pristine condition”.
Peter O’Sullivan returned a copy of Milton’s Paradise Lost and Shakespeare’s King Lear to a library in Wales a mere 116 years after they were taken out.
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His grandfather, Walter Griffith Owen, originally checked out the books from the former Llanrwst Reading Room & Library in Conwy.
Both were originally lent for just one week, according to a note inside the manuscripts.
It continued that if the book “be required for a second week, application should be made to the caretaker”.
It said the late fee was one penny per week.
The books have been on loan for over 6,000 weeks, and Mr O’Sullivan admitted to the BBC he feared a possible fine.
Before decimalisation in 1971, there were 12 pennies in a shilling and 20 shillings in a pound.
Mr O’Sullivan – making sure he did not receive a fine – did bring some money with him as he returned the classics to Llanrwst Library.
He said: “I had worked out how much I would have owed in old pennies as a couple of hundred pounds.
“But I had forgotten to add the compound interest, so it could have been thousands.
“I was just glad to return them because it was the right thing to do.”
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He added that books had been hidden behind others on a shelf at his mother’s home in Rhos on Sea, Conwy county.
Medi Ashton, the manager of Llanrwst Library, thanked Mr O’Sullivan for returning the books all these years later and remarked that they were in “excellent condition”.
Mr O’Sullivan’s grandfather worked as a shoe shop manager in Llandudno, north Wales, after World War One.
During World War Two, he became a member of the Home Guard and patrolled Conwy Estuary to prepare for a possible enemy invasion.
Library staff now plan to give the books to the archive department to “investigate further”, according to Mr O’Sullivan.
They may be displayed in the library in the near future as part of a cultural heritage exhibition.
Both were originally donated to the old library in the 1890s by English industrialist and MP for Salford Benjamin Armitage.
Copies of Paradise Lost from the period can fetch anywhere between £80 to over £2,750, while rare copies of King Lear have sold for as much as $50,000 (£37,000), but copies from the period tend to sell for £75 to £375.
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