Howard Simon took out his copy of the 1970 album from the University Heights library in the spring of 1973, when he was 14 years old as NME Reports
As the library revealed on Instagram, Simon returned his copy this week along with a letter explaining what took him so long.
He wrote: “As a recent retiree, I am taking the opportunity to turn my attention to some of the many vignettes of life that by dint of career and family have been neglected these many years.
“In that context, I am returning with this letter an overdue item (by my count, approximately 17,480 days overdue as of this writing) that I borrowed from the library in the spring of 1973 when I was 14 and in 8th grade at Wiley.”
“So it’s quite late, and I’m quite sorry!”
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Sara Phillips, manager of the University Heights branch of Heights Libraries, was having a routine day when an oddly shaped package arrived in the mail.
“I got a package in the mail from San Francisco that was record-shaped and – lo and behold! – it contained a record from our collection that was due back in June 1973!” said Phillips.
48 years ago, 8th grader Howard Simon checked out Bob Dylan's album, “Self Portrait” from the UH library, and it remained in his possession as he moved across the country. Now it's been returned, better late (17,480 days late, to be precise) than never!
Though his late fees tally up to around $1,748 (£1,231), or 10c a day, alongside the letter he sent a “replacement fee” of $175 (£123) along with one of his own albums.
“The funny thing about this is that we don’t charge overdue fines anymore–as long as we get the item back, we see no need to penalise people,” Phillips said. “We’re grateful that Mr. Simon returned the record. I’d said we can now call it even.”