This book has been sitting on Michael Shepherd's bookshelf for years, gathering dust and his mounting personal intrigue with each passing glance.
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Inside its covers, on the first page reads a handwritten note from an Elsie Shepherd to a May Croaker who resided in Wagga in 1898.
The inscription calls the book's receiver to remember their shared "happy schooldays".
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The author of the note, as far as Mr Shepherd knows, has no relationship to him, despite the familial surname.
"I found the book in Burwood in Melbourne," he said.
In all likelihood, he picked it up sometime around 1985.
"I used to like browsing bookshops for second-hand titles with inscriptions inside. This one was a lovely looking book so I hung on to it," Mr Shepherd said.
Now, the Melbourne-based collector is looking to reunite the cherished tome with its original owner if he can.
"It's sat on the bookshelf for years and we've just recently moved, so I had to get rid of some books," he said.
Packing away his collection to be re-homed, he returned to this book to re-read the inscription. The title, Patriarchs and Prophets: The lives of holy men of old, he said "is not my usual reading material".
But, certain that it would have a significant story behind it, Mr Shepherd is venturing to find the surviving family members of either Elsie Shepherd or her book-buddy May Croaker.
"It's surprising it's so well [preserved], I'd say if it's been read, it's only been read once, you can tell from the spine," he said.
"It is a beautifully bound book, I'm sure it would mean a lot to someone."
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At the height of his collecting, Mr Shepherd owned up to 30 books with handwritten notes to people inside their front covers.
"Most I've sold on at a book fair in Bendigo now," he said.
"I didn't really think of [reuniting the books] with their owners, I only thought of it for this one because it seems special.
"It would have been a good past time to try and reunite them."
Among the more prized copies he owned was an early printed edition of Robinson Crusoe.
"It said 'happy birthday dad on your 90th' and was dated to 1952," Mr Shepherd said.
"It would have been hard to find that original owner."
Another title took historic precedence to new heights with a dated inscription from the early days of World War I.
"A lot of them just had Christmas wishes, one of them was from 1914 with hopes that the war would be over soon," he said.