The Personal Librarian

Having grown up and lived in and around NY for most of my life, I'd heard of the Pierpont Morgan Library and was familiar with stories about JP Morgan. I was, however, totally unfamiliar with the story of JP Morgan's personal librarian. But apparently so were many other people.

Marie Benedict had the idea for The Personal Librarian but felt that a white woman would have trouble doing justice to the story of black Belle da Costa Greene. Her agent found her Victoria Christopher Murray to work as her co-author. The story about their partnership in the authors' notes at the end of the novel was very interesting.

JP Morgan was a financier and collector. He hired a librarian away from Princeton University on the recommendation of his nephew, Junius, to help him curate his collection.

Belle da Costa Greene was a woman working in a high powered position in the early years of  the 20th century. She had extensive knowledge, impeccable taste and was a shrewd negotiator. But Greene also had a secret. Her name at birth was Belle Marion Greener and she is the daughter of "colored" civil rights activist, Richard Greener. As difficult as it was for Belle to hold this position as a woman, she never would have been able to hold this position had anyone, most especially JP Morgan, known that she was a "colored" woman.

Belle's parents were up and coming in the 1870s. Richard Greener was the first colored person to graduate from Harvard College. He went on to graduate school and was teaching at the University of South Carolina when the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was overturned in 1883. The couple and their one child moved to the family home of Belle's mother. Eventually they moved to NYC with their enlarged family because they sensed that racial discrimination in the south and in Washington, DC was going to get worse than it was. Belle's mother decided that the only chance her children had for a future was to pass as white. Belle's father who had built his career on advocating for the rights of blacks was unable to go along with this way of life. The parents separated. Belle's, her mother and her siblings changed their last name and hinted towards Portuguese in their lineage to account for their olive skin coloring.

The book had two big story lines. One was about Belle's rise as JP Morgan's personal librarian and the building of his world class collection. The other was about Belle's life as a colored woman living as a white woman. At first I thought that Belle, who tells the story in first person, harped a lot on her secret. Until I realized how huge it must have been for a colored woman to live as a white woman. It was and is something that I can't imagine. This aspect of the novel gave me lots to think about.

There were other subplots focusing on women's suffrage, anti-Semitism, and the whole upper class art scene. Readers of historical fiction and those who enjoy reading about women who were ahead of their times will enjoy The Personal Librarian.

Now I need to remember that I'd  like to see the library the next time I'm visiting New York City, whenever that might be.