Rare writings lost, then found

The news from Harvard Square had rare-book collectors aflutter: Two manuscripts by the renowned Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges had vanished and were presumed stolen in an international literary heist worth $950,000.

Combined, the manuscripts -- "Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote" and "The Library of Babel" total just 20 pages, but the scribblings on torn ledger paper offer an irreplaceable glance into the work of a man whom many consider one of the most important writers of the 20th century.

John Wronoski, the owner of Lame Duck Books, had taken the two short stories to an antiquarian book fair in Hamburg. When he unpacked his treasures back in Cambridge on Nov. 16, the manuscripts were gone.

There were reports to police in Cambridge and Germany, a call to an insurance company, frantic searches at the bookstore on Arrow Street, and desperate communications with other Borges enthusiasts. Then yesterday The Harvard Crimson reported that the Borges manuscripts were gone and presumed stolen.

As reports of the missing manuscripts played on the radio, Wronoski sorted through his store, half delirious from a lack of sleep. He grabbed a Robert Mapplethorpe photo he had also taken to Germany and noticed a bulge behind the photo in the protective plastic sleeve.

Wronoski reached in and pulled out the two Borges manuscripts. They had been misplaced in the packing in Hamburg.

"Good," Wronoski recalled saying. "Now I don't have to kill myself."

ANDREW RYAN