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Book 47 Years Overdue Returned to San Francisco Library

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A library patron looks at a book at the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

A book nearly five decades overdue has been returned to the San Francisco Public Library.

The copy of Eldridge Cleaver's memoir "Soul On Ice" was due back at the Eureka Valley branch on December 9, 1970.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported last week that the tattered paperback has a hole in its title page and a cover detached from the spine. It was 47 years, 4 months and 29 days late, to be exact.

If SFPL didn't cap late fees at $10.01, the fine would have been $1,731.70.

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Branch manager Anne Vannucchi tells the Chronicle she'd like to know the patron's identity — not to chide him or her, just to get some answers.

Last year, a man returned his great-grandmother's copy of "Forty Minutes Late" to another SFPL branch. It was more than 100 years overdue.

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