The Personal Librarian

paperback, 538 pages

Published June 29, 2021 by Random House Large Print.

ISBN:
978-0-593-41424-8
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1 star (1 review)

The remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan's personal librarian--who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her dreams come true, from New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict and acclaimed author Victoria Christopher Murray.

In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture on the New York society scene and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps build a world-class collection.

But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the …

4 editions

An insulting romance and she deserves better

1 star

I hated this book. It’s a poorly written fictionalization of one of the most remarkable librarians, the woman who built the Morgan Library collections. All the book is interested in romanticizing her relationships with her father and JP Morgan and Berenson and justifying her mother’s decision to have the family pass as white. Meanwhile, Greene was mostly a self-taught expert in early printed books and manuscripts and art and there’s no focus on that. Her surviving letters make her sound witty and clever and these authors have just made her dull and flat. It’s an insult to Belle da Costa Greene. But one star for effort I guess