Skip to content
Sign in
Creasy Spines

“Every crease is a story.”

Illustration of the kind of find described. We don't reproduce press photographs.
Inscription· 1900s

A 1900 school prize inscription leads Persuasion home

By the Editors · As reported by Jane Austen Centre, 25 June 2019

FoundAyer, Massachusetts, United States

Tucked inside Persuasion by Jane Austen

Reunited — it went back to its owner or their family.

An early copy of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, described as a possible first edition, turned up in a box in a garage and was mailed to Ayer Shirley Regional High School in Massachusetts. The flyleaf recorded that Lillian M. Flood had won it as first prize for prize speaking at Ayer High School in May 1900. English department head Eleanor Capasso followed public records and tips from strangers to Flood’s grandsons, Peter and John Moses, in the Bronx, both keen Austen readers, and sent the book to them.

This is our summary of a find reported in the press. For the full story, photographs and any updates, read the original report in Jane Austen Centre.

More finds