What's the fine on a book that's 78 years overdue?

September 4, 2012

In this recent Chicago Tribune article, Ellen Jean Hirst reports on a copy of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray returned 78 years late.  As I posted here last month, the Chicago Public Library had instituted a “Once in a Blue Moon” amnesty running from August 20th through September 7th, so, luckily, the patron will not have to pay $5,694 in fines. One wonders at the condition of this much overdue limited edition that spent all those years stashed in a box in an attic. Did it suffer the same sorry fate as Dorian Gray’s portrait?

Barbara L.

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