The Personal Librarian: A GMA Book Club Pick

Beautifully written book about an incredible black woman of the early 20th century who lived as a white woman in an era of growing racism. This is the type of historical fiction/history book that I love to read. Where the characters are real, the major events actually occurred, but the details of feelings & narratives have to be created where gaps in history exist. The authors wrote a stunningly beautiful story of Belle da Costa Green, personal librarian to the famous JP Morgan, curator & directress of the Pierpont Morgan Library, and more. Even though Belle herself chose (out of necessity) to hide her true identity and heritage (destroying all her personal papers and any reference to being black), the authors' creativity filling in the many gaps in known history, created a character that makes your heart ache for, and a woman that you can admire so much more at her accomplishments because of how she accomplished it while living with this secret identity. It's amazing that any woman of that era could have been so successful, but to learn how she did it as a black woman passing for white is just stunning.

So I read this book for a book club coming up and cant wait to discuss it. Not my usual genre (psychological thriller, mystery) but once I started it I read every opportunity I got (even in the car - not while driving though). It takes place in the 1900s and loosely based on J.P.Morgan who was very discriminatory against Jews and Blacks.Ironically he has no idea that the personal librarian he hired for his collection of rare art and manuscripts is Black and she is keeping it a secret. The book delves into what she goes through to keep it a secret and how far she works her job and the heights she reached despite the secret. Its the kind of book you wish there was a series to because while it does not leave you hanging, it does warrant a need to follow the rest of her life. So interesting and glad I got to read it.

This is no in my normal genre for books; but it was part of our bookclub’s summer reading selections. I love history and I love architecture providing a lot of positives about this book eliminating my preconceived notions of boring and mundane. The characters were well developed; even if a little redundant for some of them. I loved the mom’s story (history) which she finally entrusts to her daughter and I enjoyed the fact this book made me look up words I had never used before.

Although this wasn’t an easy read, it is a riveting account of life in the 30’s and 40’s. Definitely applies to today’s world. The two authors have created an extraordinary work.

And at what price did she build it?By choosing to heed her mother’s advice, Belle chose to risk identifying as being a white woman in public, during post the Reconstruction era. To any non-black person, Belle’s light skin, anglicized name, and her love of art history played into the elite white psyche. They blindly decided that she is one of their own.During the time capture in this novel (1905 to 1924), and after the Dyer Bill was filibustered in 1877, blacks who tried to have agency were deemed disrespectful, out of their place and only worthy of being lynched. In particular, the filibuster argument was that they needed to be able to lynch the freed blacks to protect their white women from being raped.So, when Belle’s mother insisted that they all change their name, and identify in every way to the public as having a Portuguese heritage, Belle’s fate was chosen for her.And because a daughter’s first mirror is her mother, Belle studied who she needed to be, how she needed to maintain decorum, and how to talk in a way that black women weren’t and aren’t free to talk amongst wealthy businessmen.She studied how to be coquettish, how to think on her feet, and to deflect whenever necessary. Each successful business transaction and interaction became a cause set in motion towards her simultaneously being more visible to society and more at risk for getting caught. The price of which would impact not only her livelihood, but also that of her mother and siblings.It was interesting to “watch” the struggles that she went through over her question of whether she should have followed her mother’s path, or that of her father, which was the antithesis of her mother’s focus. Her father fought for civil rights, because he believed that some day black folks would be judge by their character. Yet, her mom, based upon witnessing every day blacks being lynched to death for their desire to be integrated socially, politically and economically, in her mind, it was only possible to be successful and free if their entire family takes advantage of looking white by choosing to be white.While reading this book, at first, I wanted to side with Belle’s dad, because to me, owning your voice, being your authentic self gives you peace of mind. Identifying as someone who you are not has always meant to me as lying to myself and destroying the chance of align your personality with your soul. I also saw the pressure Belle lived with when her father left the family because he could no longer live in the dichotomy of “Choose to be white to be successful”, or “Choose to be black to own our right to matter” that existed.Of course, my mindset was based upon living in a freeing society that 1877 to 1924 did not know. Also, we have the benefit born out of the Belle’s in our history, to speak up and be heard. Yet, one hundred years later, June 2024, black women, or any person of color, much modulate their approach to success according to societal unspoken rules.Yes. Belle built the J.P. Morgan wealth by choosing to be white, at the price of her own peace of mind. As a white woman, she could name a price of art, negotiate with old cronies, and close the deal as if she just bent her arm. That wouldn’t have happened had she identified as a black woman, back then. The wealth that she amassed for the Piermont Librarian counted upon her ability to not only study art, network with the best in the business, but also study what it meant to be an influential white woman. If she was going to have to abandon her ethnicity for the sake of her immediate family, she was going have to perpetually study being who she needed to be, and who, as a white woman, she would have licensed to be. She wasn’t free to look a black servant in the eye, for fear that they would report her to the public as being one of them. The only way she saw her biological family was through carefully planned trips that were out of the view of the socially elite.Ultimately, she mastered the public persona, though she struggled with the lie she had to continually nourish and preserve.Like “The First Ladies”, this was an excellently written book that truly helped me to be part of U.S. History.One hilarious moment that reading this book in public was: after waiting a bit for my banker to be available, seeing me reading this book in my hand, she asked, “What are you reading?” My enthusiastic response was, “Oh this is a great historical novel about how a black woman 100 years ago made J.P. Morgan’s wealth.”The look on her face was priceless.

I do not often read books of historical fiction. I generally find that the fiction is constrained by the need to to paint a reasonable verisimilitude of the subject's life and the historical part is often misconstrued by the need to create an entertaining portrait. So generally -- poor fiction and inaccurate history. That said, I loved this book! The protagonist of the novel spent an entire career passing for white and the personal and even the psychological difficulties of that are very well and sympathetically described. She seems to have even hidden the fact of her own heritage from her long-term lover, the benighted Bernard Berenson. As I love old books and incunabula, I enjoyed the descriptions of hunting through the European auction houses for desired items. I would love to have met Belle de Costa Greene, although it is clear that even If I had been her contemporary that would not have happened. She was a fascinating although somewhat distant woman, and her life was both complicated and interesting. I also found the book very difficult to put down once I started reading!