The Personal Librarian

As a banking leader in America, John Pierpont Morgan exuded much control over the economy and the way business was handled in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.  He began as the son of a financier and expected his son to carry on after him.  But his legacy is so much more than his business acumen –the Pierpont Morgan library lives on today as a sanctuary for Morgan’s expansive collection of illuminated manuscripts, historic copies of literature, and many pieces of artwork.  He was a true art and literature aficionado who acquired expensive and rare pieces not just to look at, but to experience.  That library is a lasting legacy formed, in part, by Belle de Costa Greene – The Personal Librarian to Mr. Morgan.

When reading about the history of the era, Greene is equally impressive to Mr. Morgan, given the secret she carried for so long – her father was the first black graduate of Harvard College, yet she lived as a white woman.  Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray explored this secret and the possibility of who Greene may have told in this wonderful historical fiction about the librarian.   While the authors kept the secret as the running undercurrent to the novel, they wove a beautiful tale of Greene’s life including loves lost, personal sacrifice, and family dynamics.  Set against a backdrop of the beginnings of what would later become the Civil Rights movement, every action accounted for in this book reveals the difficult decisions Greene faced throughout her life – live as a white woman with a flourishing career, or come clean about her lineage and suffer personal ruin.

I give The Personal Librarian 4 out of 5 stars.  While I was familiar with the history of Belle de Costa Greene before reading this book, I was astonished and the new information I gleaned from these pages!  The authors did take a few liberties with the timeline, but nothing that would be a glaringly obvious error as we’ve seen with other books this year.  I also enjoyed the prose and the light references to events and people of the time.  I have read other books by Benedict in the past and not been nearly as thrilled with them – this book captivated me and I couldn’t get enough of Greene’s interactions with Morgan!

With inclusions of sexual intercourse, abortion, and the harsh racism of the time, this novel may be best for more mature audiences.  I would recommend this book for history lovers, library fans, and anyone planning a visit to The Morgan Library & Museum – the authors created such stunning imagery of the library and its collection that I can’t wait to visit myself!

I chose The Personal Librarian in honor of National Library Week, beginning Monday.  Libraries provide such a great resource for our communities.  Our local library system has developed a series of events every week for small children to come for story time and a craft.  They also hold classes to teach languages (including ASL), business skills, and gardening.  I was also excited to learn that, among other great services, our libraries allow card holders to check out sports equipment and park passes!  While we don’t physically visit our library often, my kids utilize their free online research resources, and I love connecting my card to the Libby app so I can receive eBooks and audiobooks from our library straight to my phone.  If you haven’t checked out your local library’s resources, stop in this week to meet your librarians and see their full schedule of classes and events!

This post contains affiliate links.

What I’m Reading

• Current print book: Cold Snap, Mark Cameron
• Current audio book: The Bitter & Sweet of Cherry Season, Molly Fader
• Book I’m most looking forward to: The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune