Today I am going to tell you about a case of the return of books, a case that does not happen every day. Have you ever lent a pen and have not heard from it again? This type of disappearance occurs constantly with any type of loan. As usual, when a person borrows something and goes for a while without returning it, they no longer return it rather, he keeps it.
This is not the case with James Philips, a man who studied at the University of Dayton, Ohio. Phillips returned a book to the library after 49 years. The book was a copy of "History of the Crusades" and he quickly proceeded to his return tormented by the guilt of having denied knowledge of the history of the Crusades to half a century of students. Philips returned the book with a note of apology. Below you can read a fragment of the note:
Please accept my apologies for the absence of the History of the Crusades book. It seems like I borrowed it when I was a freshman and, in a way, it's been out of place all these years.
When the library contacted Philips, he gave a more detailed story about the book's disappearance. He borrowed the book during his freshman year in college, but soon dropped out of college to join the United States Navy. Apparently, someone must have collected his belongings from his room in the student residence and sent the book to his parents' home, where it remained until the death of his parents: his father in 1994 and his mother in 2002. His belongings were accidentally found by Pilips' younger brother.
“It was interesting to see a book that had no evidence of our return to modern technology. It still contained the loan card stamped with the date 1950"
"It was very considerate of him to do this because not everyone would choose to give something back after so long"
As they always say, better late than never. Philips has proven that it is always better to give back something that has been borrowed for many years that have passed, I wish we could find people as loyal as Philips.
Hey.
Impressive the case. I don't catch up with Philips, although it also took me a long time to return a book (curiously, it was about the History of the Crusades. What a coincidence). I took it out in 2001 and I didn't return it until 2014 or 2015. The funny thing is that in so many years they haven't claimed it from me even once (other times they have claimed things from me).
Greetings from Oviedo.
That they do not claim it is already a problem, if the library does not care about its own books ...
It seems that you are our Spanish Philips, even the same book, although not so many years 😉
Hello, Lidida.
You're right, if the library doesn't care about its things, we'll go wrong. Surely there are more people in Spain who have taken years to return a book, although I imagine that in total there will be a few dozen at most, although you never know ...
A literary greeting from Oviedo.