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It’s never too late to return a book to the library.
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Even 100 years after the fact.
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The Louisville Free Public Library shared on Facebook that two books checked out by the family of music legend Morris Perelmuter King in the 1920s were finally returned on Monday, People reported.
Library officials said King checked out a book titled Famous Composers and their Works in 1924 when he 14 years old. He never brought it back.
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King’s family told library officials that the book helped spark his interest in music, which eventually took him to Sin City.
King initially played the violin in the Louisville Orchestra and moved west to start his band and release new music. He became a headliner during the early days of the Las Vegas Strip and was a close friend of the Rat Pack.
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The musician was born in 1909 to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents. His mom, Miriam “Mary” Perelmuter also checked out a book covering Russian language in 1927 and never returned it, the library said.
King died in 1993 at age 83.
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His son, Michael Perelmuter King, found the books in his L.A. home several years later and he, along with other family members, finally returned the books to the library.
“We are not the owners of this property. We were merely custodians of this property. And as a custodian, we had a duty to return it to its rightful owners,” Perelmuter told WLKY. “And the fact that it brought together our family and brought together all of us at this very happy moment is well worth it.”
Library officials said that the family could have incurred about $7,800 in fines with inflation, but the library recently transitioned to being fine-free to “encourage people to return long-overdue materials.”
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