Emily Chan
When The Early Works of Aubrey Beardsley arrived in Worcester, the library employees were surprised to see it in such excellent condition, especially after so many years.
Nobody knows where the book spent the last five decades, but missing library books are often found when people are moving or cleaning out the homes of loved ones who have recently passed away. Perhaps this was how the book was able to make its way back home.
This edition and volume of the book is considered a rare book and is being sold with another volume for $950 on online retailers. The second volume is titled The Late Works of Aubrey Beardsley.
Beardsley was a late 19th-century English author and illustrator. He was best known for his Japanese-inspired black ink drawings.
He was also a leading figure in the aesthetic movement alongside Oscar Wilde and is credited with the development of Art Noveau. He died from tuberculosis in 1898 at the age of 25.
Another book that was over 100 years overdue was returned to the Saint Paul Public Library in Minnesota in 2023.
It was a 1902 edition of Famous Composers vol. 2 by Nathan Haskell Dole. The book was found by a patron in Hennepin County who was sorting through their mother’s belongings.
