90-year-old book return at Larchmont Public Library reveals a love story for the ages

How much money is 90 years of late fees?

For Joanie Wheeler Morgan, it cost only $5 to return an overdue book her stepfather borrowed from the Larchmont Public Library on Oct. 11, 1933.

James H.S. Ellis Jr. was an advertising executive in New York City in the 1930s and lived in Larchmont with his first wife and their two sons.

Morgan said that after his first wife died and he remarried, Ellis temporarily moved to Reno, Nevada, in 1958 to finalize a divorce. There, he met Morgan's mother, Kay Wheeler. They married and stayed in Reno.

"He was a very giving person and a very humble person," she said. "He was the most wonderful stepfather I ever could have had. He and my mother were extremely happy together."

Morgan said she believes the book, Joseph Conrad's "Youth and Two Other Stories," was borrowed by one of Ellis' sons from his first marriage.

But it was a young boy in the neighborhood of Morgan's family vacation home in Hot Springs, Virginia, who helped her discover the 90-years-overdue book in July.

"A young boy, I think he was about 9, and his grandfather were visiting me here at the house and we were walking around the main floor of the house, which had Jimmy's office and library," she said, referring to her stepfather. "I was talking to the little fellow's grandfather and he had never been in a private library such as this one. He was absolutely captivated by all these books."

Morgan said the boy took a book off the shelf and started going through it, when his grandfather discouraged him from touching it.

"But I was thrilled that he was interested in books," she said. "This is a rural community. There aren't great facilities for pursuing books. There is a local library, and of course the kids go to school, but nevertheless he had never seen anything like this, and the idea that he had an interest in books — I said, 'I'm going to nurture that idea.'"

Morgan said she started to look for an age-appropriate book for the young bibliophile and noticed the Conrad book.

"I figured that probably wasn't quite right for my little friend, but nevertheless I care about Joseph Conrad, so I pulled the book off the shelf and started looking at it," she said. "That's how I discovered that it's a library edition. Not only that, but it was a Larchmont Public Library edition."

That's when she noticed the perfectly intact rear free-end paper with the borrowers slip.

"I said, 'My God, this is perfect!'" Morgan said. "Then I looked through the book itself, and the condition was very good. I was impressed with the condition, so I thought, 'Hmm. As long as I can get it to them, say the latter part of September, they would have time to make use of it and get the word out before the 11th of October, 2023."

The Larchmont Public Library said in a Facebook post that the estimated cost of the late fee was thousands of dollars: "At 20 cents a day, it seems like the fine could easily have reached over $6,400. But no, the real answer is only $5!"

"Getting the call from Joanie was such a pleasant surprise," Larchmont librarian Caroline Cunningham said. "At first, I wasn't sure if she was calling the correct number. There is a Larchmont Library in Virginia, so I had initially thought this call was supposed to go there. I was very lucky to be on the reference desk when she decided to ring us."

Cunningham said Liam Hegarty, the head of reference, came up with the idea of making the late fee $5. "He thought of using it as a learning opportunity for patrons," she said, "to remind them that it's OK if you find that overdue library book after a few months. The fee will only be $5."

Morgan said the book probably ended up in Hot Springs when Ellis moved all of his belongings, including a huge executive desk from his advertising firm in New York, to the vacation home he purchased for his family in the 1950s.

She said Ellis was a generous and caring man. She said the way he entered her family's life was nothing short of marvelous.

Her mother and Ellis "happened to be staying in the same hotel, and they each would go to the front desk to get mail and talk to people there and so forth," Morgan said. "The woman at the desk at the time had met, of course, Jimmy, and she met my mother as well and she knew they were both alone. And she thought, 'These two people should meet each other,' so that's what she did."

Morgan said that within a few days, Jimmy and Kate knew they were meant for each other. She said Jimmy spent the rest of his life showing his love for his wife.

"Jimmy was a good dancer, and my mother was a great dancer and loved to dance," Morgan said. "She was a stride pianist, wrote her own pieces and loved music of all sorts. They both loved music."

She said when they moved to the house in Hot Springs, Jimmy took the time to learn something new to help Kate pursue her passions.

"As soon as I could hear, practically, she was playing the piano at home," Morgan said. "She would play the piano, and in order to accompany her, Jimmy learned how to play the drums. That was the kind of man he was."

When Joanie Wheeler Morgan found the Larchmont Public Library edition of the Conrad book, she knew she had to return it to its rightful owners. However, she also took the opportunity to help bring attention not only to the library, but to her mother and stepfather and their extraordinary life.

"What I care about the most, really, is paying tribute to Kate and Jimmy," Morgan said. "But my major reason for returning the book is not only that it needs to go where it should be, but also I think it can help Larchmont Public attract new patrons, and people will recognize what's been in their midst all along."

"We definitely had patrons come in asking about the book once the story aired on multiple news outlets," Cunningham said. "I couldn't say for sure if more patrons have been coming in because of the story or not, but I want to hope they are!"

Along with the Conrad book, Morgan sent a copy of "The Jumping Frog From Jasper County; Hoosier Boy Lands on Madison Avenue," written by none other than Jimmy Ellis.

In addition to being a highly regarded advertising executive, he was a published author. The book recounts Ellis' life from humble beginnings in Indiana to his big break in New York City. Morgan said her mother was the one who encouraged him to write the book.

"These are fabulous people. They're both gone," she said. "Jimmy had died in 1978, and my mother, who never remarried, died in 2005. They were not 'hoity-toity' people, although Jimmy had every right to be hoity-toity considering his success in advertising but that's not the way he was. That never changed."

"They loved each other deeply," Morgan said. "It was probably the happiest time in their lives."

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: 90-years-overdue book gets returned to Larchmont Public Library