Book Returned to Indiana Library Five Decades After Being Checked Out
ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. — A novel due back to a northern Indiana library when Lyndon Johnson was president is back in the Hoosier state.
Sir Gibbie, an 1879 book by George MacDonald, was checked out from the St. Joseph County Public Library in the spring of 1968. The novel, which tells a rags-to-riches story set in Scotland, was due to be returned on June 21, 1968.
After more than five decades away, the book arrived at the River Park branch of the library last week, courtesy of the San Bruno Public Library in California, according to The South Bend Tribune.
Joe Sipocz, the library’s branch manager, said the novel arrived in the mail without a note. It was stamped with the library’s River Park address, according to Sipocz, and the due date card was still secured in the back of the book.
Sipocz told The South Bend Tribune that the book will likely go back on the shelf at the library.
