In this recent Chicago Tribune article, Ellen Jean Hirst reports on a copy of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray returned 78 years late. As I posted here last month, the Chicago Public Library had instituted a “Once in a Blue Moon” amnesty running from August 20th through September 7th, so, luckily, the patron will not have to pay $5,694 in fines. One wonders at the condition of this much overdue limited edition that spent all those years stashed in a box in an attic. Did it suffer the same sorry fate as Dorian Gray’s portrait?
Barbara L.
