(TNS) — It’s not often that something lost for more than half a century is recovered.
Such a moment happened this past holiday season at the Sewickley Public Library.
Former borough resident Carol Patterson McIntyre took out a copy of “Beowulf” in 1969.
She said she borrowed it for an assignment her senior year at Quaker Valley for English teacher Shirley Stevens.
“When it was time to take it back, I couldn’t find it anywhere,” McIntyre said. “My mother even helped me look and we just couldn’t find it.”
She paid a fine and paid for the book so she could still take out items from her favorite library.
Move ahead 54 years. McIntyre, who now lives in Denver, N.C., about 26 miles north of Charlotte, said she was doing some home rearranging and found the lost poem.
“It was a really small book, probably a little bit bigger than a post card and a half-an-inch thick, if that,” she said. “I was showing it to my husband, (Brian), and thought I probably should just throw it away. I’m never going to read it again.
He said, ‘No. You should take it back. … They’ll get a kick out of this.’ Apparently, a lot of people are.”
The retired administrative specialist and payroll clerk brought it with her on a Thanksgiving trip to see her daughters.
“The timing was kind of cool, I think,” McIntyre said. “Most libraries have a slot now where if you have to take a book back when the library’s closed you just take it and put it in.”
With a little coaxing from the family, she hand-delivered it to one of the clerks.
The book was published in 1912, and this particular copy was first circulated in 1923, according to library officials.
McIntyre’s daughter, Sayward Lehman, recorded a video of the book return.
“It’s been fun,” Lehman said of the experience. “Our family’s been a part of this community. We’re many generations into the Sewickley community. Sewickley is just a fabric of our family. It’s been a fun little moment these past few weeks.”
Lehman, a 1996 Quaker Valley grad, is an real estate advisor with Piatt Sotheby’s International Realty in Sewickley.
The library posted about the return in December on its Facebook page.
Since then, the story has been told by several media outlets.
McIntyre, 72, believes the person who would have reveled in all the attention the return received was her best friend and fellow alum, the late Linda Huntley.
“She has a great sense of humor, and she would have been rolling on the floor laughing with all this attention,” McIntyre said. “I miss being able to share that with her. Our friendship went way back to seventh grade. We were both class of ‘69. She might even be up in heaven right now still laughing.”
McIntyre called Stevens “one of the best teachers (the district) ever had.”
The return was something the family and library staffers will not soon forget.
“We at the library were very surprised when she returned the title,” said Richelle Klug, head of communications.
“While we get overdue books returned all the time, this might be the latest one has ever been brought back — 54 years later. Carol’s commitment to bringing the book back after all these years emphasizes how much our library means to our community, and the strong ties Sewickley has with its residents.”
Multiple check out dates are stamped inside the back of the book. The first one is from October 1923.
People will not be able to take this copy out anymore.
Klug said it will be added to the library’s local history collection. The library celebrated its 150th anniversary in November.
The library stopped collecting overdue book fines in 2022 in an effort to make its collection more accessible.
Fines were 5 cents per day at the time the book was checked out. Meaning, McIntyre could have owed about $1,000 for the overdue item.
“We are grateful to Carol for preserving a piece of the library’s history and for returning it to us so we can continue to preserve it for future generations,” Klug said. “This is a really interesting tale to add to our library’s continuing story.”
