Qns. Library fetes 104-yr.-old ‘superstar’

The Queens Public Library has honored 104-year-old Queens author Kenneth Neilson — the library’s eldest patron and likely its longest cardholder.

Queens Public Library President and CEO Dennis Walcott and the library’s bookmobile — complete with a banner featuring Neilson’s name and photo — turned up at the retired teacher’s Hollis home Wednesday afternoon for a socially distanced celebration. “Over the years I’ve had quite a bit of help from the library,”

Neilson (photo) told the Daily News, noting the resource helped him pen several of his books, including “The World of Walt Whitman Music” in 1963, “The World of Langston Hughes Music” in 1982 and “Langston Hughes” in 2009.

“Librarians are great teachers. You go into a library with a question, they are there to try to answer it and they will go great lengths to do so,” he added. “I usually send a letter of commendation to the librarian who helped me to show them my appreciation for their work.”

Nielson’s lifelong love affair with literature began as a boy in Brooklyn, where he lived in a brownstone on Monroe St. about eight blocks from his local branch.

It was then in 1926 at around age 10 that he got his first library card — and nearly every day would find himself behind the stacks, and his nose in a good book.

“I was always going to the library. I was a great reader. Now I have quite a library of my own,” he said, noting that his first book purchase, “The Adventures of Tarzan and the Apes,” was inspired by his days leafing through dozens of borrowed novels.

Walcott first met the centenarian about four years ago — and has kept in touch with him ever since.

“He is really a superstar at Central,” he said, referring to the library’s Jamaica branch. “He would tell people different stories about his life . ... He’s always been a part of us.”

“Several months ago, I said to myself, how can we [reconnect] with him?” added Walcott, noting that he had not seen Neilson due to the pandemic. “This was a way for us to show appreciation for his years of commitment to the community, to education and to the library.”