by John Zenoni
What a wonderful novel ‘The Personal Librarian’ is. Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray do a masterful job telling the fictionalized story of real-life librarian, Belle da Costa Greene. Greene was the personal librarian of the extremely wealthy J.P. Morgan, who amassed antique manuscripts, books and artwork, with the intention of keeping it all as a private collection. Greene, who actually managed to collect a large portion of these items on her own, was in fact an African-American woman who passed as a white woman during her time with the Morgan empire. It was after Mr. Morgan’s death that she convinced the son, Jack Morgan, to donate the library as a gift to New York City.
Greene and her family were intentionally raised by her mother as white in order to protect her children from racism and rejection that was rampant at that time. This novel gives insight into Greene’s life and her conflict with her family, society and herself by pretending to be someone she was not.
Very well done and I highly recommended!
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