Book taken in 1928 returned to Russian library

A unique case of finding a rare edition after almost 100 years occurred in Novosibirsk

A copy of the novel by the American writer Upton Sinclair “Sylvia”, taken for reading in 1928, was returned to the Karl Marx Central City Library in Novosibirsk. This was told to reporters of the portal infopro54.ru deputy director of the library Elena Nemtseva.

According to her, the book with the stamps “Central Library named after Karl Marx in Novo-Nikolaevsk” was brought to the library by a local resident Victoria Agamyan. She found this copy in the family archive. Judging by the stamp, this book was last issued to the reader in 1928. “Which of her ancestors took this novel in the library 95 years ago, Vika does not know,” the press service of the institution explained. “The book has been in the family archive for three generations.”

The director of the library also noted that there were few cases in her history of an unprecedented long delay of books. So, once the relatives of one of the readers returned the book 10 years after it was given out.

Returned after almost a century, the book is in a dilapidated condition. Obviously, it was actively read in the family where it ended up, but for this reason it is unlikely to be of antiquarian value. “However, there are several nuances that suggest that the publication may be a rarity,” Nemtseva stressed.

According to the Novosibirsk Central Library named after Karl Marx, the American socialist writer Upton Sinclair wrote the novel “Sylvia” in 1913. Nine years later, in 1922, it was translated into Russian. The title page of the edition returned to the library was not preserved, but the institution’s specialists suggested that the book was published between 1922 (the year the novel was translated) and 1926 (during that period Novo-Nikolaevsk was renamed into Novosibirsk). The novel uses the pre-reform spelling with the letters “er” and “yat,” experts said, adding that after 1918, printing houses were no longer supposed to issue editions with the same spelling, which increases interest in the copy.

The Karl Marx Library is one of the oldest in the city. It was opened in Novosibirsk in 1920. The specialists of this organization thanked the Aghamyan family for returning the rare book.