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Darwin Returns to Boston Public LibraryA first edition of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection that had been missing from the Boston Public Library for at least 78 years was returned July 25 by a New Hampshire woman who found it among materials she inherited from a relative. Julie Geissler obtained the 1859 work from her great-aunt Hester Hastings, daughter of William T. Hastings, a Brown University professor, who bought the book in 1923. The book was inscribed with William Hastings’s name and bore a faded BPL book plate; penciled on an inside page was the price he probably paid for it, $61. The 1,250 original copies now usually sell for $40,000–$50,000; at Christie’s in London, one sold recently for almost $72,000. Geissler had the book appraised, and a few days later, she and her husband decided to return it to the library, the Boston Globe reported August 1. “Mom did a great job raising these people,” said Susan Glover Godlewski, BPL curator of rare books. In her 20-year career, she said, “I’ve never had a book of this importance and value come back.” Posted August 6, 2001. |
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