By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
Bargain-hunters weren’t the only ones to find a potential jewel among the sales for the Lincoln Highway Buy-Way event. The Friends of the Bucyrus Public Library may have also stumbled upon a one-of-a-kind find.
Someone had recently donated a box full of old books to the library and Maureen Scharrock, president of the Friends of the Bucyrus Public Library, had been sorting through it Thursday when she came across a few that caught her attention.
“I just started going through them yesterday,” explained Scharrock. “I started looking at it because it was an old book.”
Scharrock’s surprise came when she pulled out Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy, a Russian author who died in 1910, wrote the classic novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Resurrection, Tolstoy’s third longest novel, was originally published in 1899.
Seeing Tolstoy’s name written along the spine in gold lettering may have pleased Scharrock but it was the inside of the book that may have made her literary heart beat faster. Scharrock discovered an inscription by Tolstoy a few pages into the book. It said, “This English version of “Resurrection” is published by Dodd, Mead and Company by my authority.” The note was also signed by Tolstoy.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she said.
Occasionally a pressed rose or other small odds and ends may be found within the pages of books donated to the library but Scharrock has never stumbled upon something like this. She set the book aside to be looked at by Bucyrus Public Library Director Matt Ross. Ross will then have the book investigated by a company to determine if it has any actual value.
Scharrock doesn’t know if the book is actually worth anything—she questioned whether the inscription was printed or written on the page—but the experience of discovering the book and its little surprise seemed to be worth it.
“It might not be anything but you never know what you’re going to find,” Scharrock said. “It’s like a treasure hunt.”