Although I have read other books by Marie Benedict, including Lady Clementine, a fictional account of Clementine Churchill and The Other Woman and The Other Einstein, a fictional account of Mileva Maric, I was only able to get through the first few chapters of The Personal Librarian. Although I enjoy reading about lesser-known women in history, the characterization in this novel seems two-dimensional. I expected to be far more interested in the book.

I was so excited to see more people reading and learning about Belle De Costa Greene. I first learned about her from a classmate’s presentation in library school, and she seemed amazing. Female librarians weren’t well respected at the time, forget about the challenges of being a Black woman passing as white.

But…. This book was kind of a slog. There’s one pure moment of triumph, and it’s immediately followed by bittersweet interactions with other characters. Belle drinks too much and seems to want to escape her life. The whole book reminded me of that 30 Rock joke where Tracy Morgan’s character is going to get his Oscar by being in a movie called “Hard to Watch.” I believe it absolutely depicts De Costa Greene's life accurately (or as accurately as historical fiction allows) but... just not for me right now.

In another time, I might have liked it better, but alas, pandemic-fatigue Savanna wants fun reading, not “Hard to Read” books.

This is an interesting historical fiction novel about J. P. Morgan's personal librarian who helped him build his collection of art and rare books. Belle da Costa Greene was well known in New York society of the early 1900's, what was not known was that she was actually from a prominent black family passing as white. Belle must protect her secret and pursue her dream.
I enjoyed the book for the most part, though it did get a little predictable and start seemingly like I've read this book/story before. It will be enjoyed by historical fiction fans.

After reading The Only Woman In The Room, I wanted to see how Marie Benedict told the story of JP Morgan’s Personal Librarian. I had no idea that the book would speak to women’s rights, family and race. As a librarian, I was fascinated as she built the library. As a historian, I welcomed the opportunity to see the world through her eyes. I will highly recommend this book to library patrons.

Belle Marion Greener, also known as Belle de Costa Greene, has a secret that she must guard at all costs in order to achieve her dreams. Hiding that she is the daughter of a known African American equality advocate and relying on her lighter skin due to her supposed Portuguese heritage, Belle is able to build a phenomenal career and reputation among the art world and New York’s high society. If anyone finds out about her Black heritage, her career as J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian and her life as a “white passing woman” will be crushed. Well written and well researched, Benedict does a superb job of bringing this powerful Black American story to readers.

I really enjoyed reading this book. As a librarian, it was interesting to see how some other librarians work. The overall story was you see what Bella went through to keep her turn heritage hidden to be able to get and keep her job.

I love historical fiction. It teaches me things I never knew, and it sends me down rabbit holes, searching for more information. Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray’s new novel has those two things and more.

Belle Marion Greener is the daughter of Richard T. Greener, the first man to graduate from Harvard, and Genevieve Fleet Greener. The family left Washington, D. C. to escape the racial tensions that had been growing since the end of the Civil War for New York. There Genevieve decided that she and her children---Belle, her brother, and two sisters---would “pass.” Mr. Greener, an activist, refused and left the family.

The family struggled, until Belle got a job as the personal librarian to financier J. P. Morgan. Belle knew that Morgan would never hire a Black woman, so she changed her name to Belle da Costa Greene, a woman of Portuguese decent, which explained her ‘dusty” complexion. Her job was to help Morgan build the most extensive library of rare books and manuscripts, antiquities and the finest art collection in the world.

Taking place in the early 1900s, this novel is about the guilt that Belle carried; terrified that someone would discover her secret. After goggling images of her, I could understand why she was so scared. But the book is also about how a hard working young woman became one of the most powerful and influential women in the art world. She was able to travel alone in New York and in Europe.

I had a little trouble with the first third of the novel as rare works that I had never heard of made me feel rather stupid. But Belle’s story is one of the most interesting period pieces I have read.

Another interesting tidbit on this novel is the collaboration of the white Marie Benedict and the Black Victoria Christopher Murray. Personally, I could not tell which section of the novel each writer championed, but the two together created a deep, lush narrative that I found irresistible.

“The Personal Librarian” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Intriguing account of an extraordinarily talented and ambitious woman who helped transform Manhattan's Pierpont Morgan Library into a world class cultural institution. The novel provided an unique perspective on the life of a woman of color during the 1900's in America. There was no place for a woman in the business world during those times - especially for a woman of color - Belle Greener was a black woman who could pass as white and did so to advance her opportunities during a time when black women were barely even considered a person much less a business executive. Being a ambitious woman at the turn of the century America was extremely adverse for all woman and especially hard for a woman of color. We are reminded of the history of division in our society - of racial as well as gender inequality. For the times, Belle Marion Greener, or Belle da Costa Greene as she became publicly known, was not raised in what would have been the average Black family of the 1900's. She was the daughter of a prominent scholar, diplomat, professor and law school dean - Richard T. Greener and his wife, Genevieve Ida Fleet Greener. Greener was the first Black Man to graduate Harvard. They were a prominent family. Richard fought to increase the rights of people of color so when his wife wanted to pass their children off as white so that they could exceed in society, he found he could not live with his family, as they were not standing up for Black rights but living a lie for what he thought of as selfish reasons. His wife felt it was the price that had to be paid for success. And all that was some of the true historical parts of the novel. That the novel was written in collaboration of one Black woman author and another White woman author gives the book a depth of perspective and their extensive research shows. As with any well written historical fiction novel, I was inspired to investigate further. I was very intrigued with the live of Belle Greener and the institution of the Morgan Library. I am on the hunt now to read a true biography of Belle Greener. I am saddened that as a librarian myself, I had not heard of her or her contributions to my field. We do learn and are inspired to research from fiction!

I am grateful to NetGalley and to Berkeley Publishing Group for giving me an advanced reader’s copy of a fantastic new book of historical fiction entitled The Personal Librarian. The book was co-written by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray and published at the end of June, 2021. It’s a fascinating tale of the life and accomplishments of an extraordinarily intelligent, talented, and bold woman, who was born “colored,” as they said in the late 1800s, but who lived as a white woman for all of her adult life until she died in 1950.

The woman, born Marion Belle Greener in 1879, who later became known as Belle da Costa Greene, was chosen by the wealthy industrialist J. P. Morgan to organize his personal library and to help him build it to become a world class institution. She accomplished this, and more, through wit and charm and determination, all the while terrified that the truth about her would be found out and ruin her life as well as the lives of the rest of her family.

Was happy to include this important historical novel in the June instalment of Novel Encounters, my regular column highlighting the month's top fiction for Zed, Zoomer magazine’s reading and books section.
[Full review feature at link.]*

As a librarian who loves history I thought this was a fascinating book. I feel like I learned so much and I loved all the characters. It was so interesting and I was wary about it being written by two authors but I thought it worked really well.

I loved this one so much, working in the financial services industry this was especially interesting to me, and it was so well written that I was captivated from the start and did not stop until it was done. The audio is narrated by Robin Miles and she does a wonderful job, I highly recommend listening to this if you can.

This is such a fascinating story, Belle is very successful as J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian, however she had to live her life hiding her true identity. I had not heard of her or this position before, and it was very interesting to read about both.

This is such a well done novel, and I thought the relationship between both Belle and Morgan as well as she and his family was captured very well. I also enjoyed the time Belle spent at home with her family even though her relationship with her mother was strained most of the time. The NYC culture is also a huge factor, along with the Great Depression, and I loved learning how Morgan and Belle influenced both of these things. I also never knew there was a need for a personal librarian, and what all this job entailed, so that also was fascinating to read about. Like I said, there is so much to this story that it was impossible to put down until the end!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the digital galley to review.

THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN⁣
By Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray⁣
July @gmabookclub pick⁣
Swipe for the synopsis ⁣
3.85 stars ✨ ⁣
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I did so much Google image searching while reading this book. Looking up all these characters, looking up the art mentioned, looking up these old manuscripts, looking at the library itself. I really find the early 1900s to be fascinating. And this story of Belle da Costa Greene was no different, though I found it to be a little slow at parts. Her story and that of the Pierpont Morgan Library was completely new to me and I’m glad I have some knowledge of it now. ⁣
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My third @gmabookclub pick read this year, hoping to check off a few more before the year is up!

This was a well-written and very interesting introduction to a character from history that I was not familiar with. Benedict and Murray created a very smooth writing style that was both informative and emotional. I really enjoyed getting to know the main character, Belle da Costa Greene, and her unpredictable boss, J.P. Morgan. I had to really restrain myself from looking up information about both of them as I was reading because I really wanted to know how the story ended and whether Morgan ever found out and how we know about Greene today. The sections on how Belle felt about passing as white and the conflicts that it created in her family were emotionally fraught. The notes that the authors provided after the ending were a wonderful introduction to how they managed their writing process and how they discovered Greene. I will be widely recommending this title to my patrons and thoroughly enjoyed it myself (and I would not consider myself a Historical Fiction fan).

Another fascinating story of a little known woman of history - something Marie Benedict does so well. Although fictionalized, I enjoyed learning about Belle and her place in her world and ours; and while we think we've progressed so far, this reminds us how far we have to go.

The Personal Librarian was a page turner. This is based on real life events, which in my opinion makes this book an enjoyable read. Belle lived inside a secret her entire life… she was a colored woman living as white in New York. The best part of it all is that she worked for J.P. Morgan, who was not only super demanding but also had harsh views regarding religion, people’s color and then some.

I can’t help but imagine how he would’ve felt if he’d found out the most important woman in his life was not who she seemed. Belle outmaneuvered society like no other and made a name for herself in doing so. She built the library just as she promised J.P. Morgan she would. The library is not only J.P. Morgan’s legacy, but it is hers as well.

It took me a while to get through this book. I was excited to begin reading it as I am a Black librarian and have been researching passing in the United States for some time now. However, I felt slowed down by my own mood and by the vastly different takes I saw on this novel. Some people loved it and sang its praises while a few other deemed it only worthy of a one-star rating.

Part of what made it hard to completely lose myself in the book is Greene's voice. Her narration is very formal, but I expect it accurately mimic's that of the people who lived in her station at the turn-of-the-century in the United States. Once I got past that, Greene's observations, fears, and ambition were easy to understand. Being a woman at the start of the 20th century was hard enough. Being a Black woman was something else in itself. Sacrificing her family, personal life, and happiness in order to achieve her dream was likely very painful for Belle and others like her. Benedict and Murray do a great job of reminding the reader of the historical context of Greene's time throughout the book without hammering it in. Despite the enormous benefits that Greene enjoyed as an American tycoon's personal librarian, she was still carrying the weight of providing for her immediate family (as well as protecting their secret), keeping herself safe from racial violence, and trying to make sure her work would benefit the public in the end.

I'm glad that Benedict and Murray took some time to examine the intersectionality of Greene's identity and the privileges that came along with them. While she was extremely knowledgeable and talented, Greene was also simply lucky. She had been born light-skinned enough to be able to hide in plain sight while those darker than her had no choice. She may have lived her life in fear of being exposed, but she had the benefit of being able to avoid the "race riots" and so much more.

My only critiques of this book are that I wish the authors spent a bit more time analyzing Greene's privilege, her life after J.P. Morgan's death, and the notion (which many people believed in Greene's time and now) that the greatest contributions to the history of this country, the world, art, and literature come from Western Europe and Greece.

As this book is a bit dense for casual readers, I'd recommend it to history buffs, historical fiction fans, rare book librarians, and art history enthusiasts.

At the turn of the 20th century, Belle de Costa Greene emerges into New York City society and art world thanks to her new career as the librarian of J.P. Morgan's personal library. She quickly becomes known for her distinguishing good taste in acquisitions. This unexpected fame leaves Belle feeling frightened that her long-buried secret will be discovered and she will be revealed as a fraud. Can Bella keep her secret from the art world and those closest to her?
Benedict and Murray have painted a realistic and plausible fiction of a real-life library and arts icon. I would like to thank the authors for bringing this amazing woman to light. I was not aware of Belle de Costa Greene before reading The Personal Librarian. The pain and fear she must have endured just so she could not only live her dream, but thrive in a racist world; I am in awe. What further greatness could she have achieved had she been able to be her true self?

I was not familiar at all with JP Morgan outside of his name but really enjoyed the racial and wealth elements of this book. I am a huge fan of historical fiction and this book fit the bill. Not only did I love this book because it was focused on a biracial librarian, I loved it even more because of how strong of a personality Belle was.

This book did a phenomenal job capturing the experience of someone who doesn't quite fit the mold of what they look like and what race they are. From the first page, you get the mindset of Belle and how she must live without the privilege of those around her and must always be on. The writers of this story truly did exceptional work in giving readers a glimpse of someone most might not have heard of but whose work has impacted both the city of New York, the art world, and the Black community.

It makes one want to travel back in time and be a fly on the wall as she wrote those long-gone letters and lived her whole life burdened with secrets. I am glad she is being honored and recognized finally for all that she was and the impact she has had on future generations and other women of color.