Coming Late to the Party

The Personal Librarian, Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, Berkley, 2021

At a certain point, the people in your life, rarely surprise you. There are exceptions, of course. For me it was a few years ago when a niece, whom I never perceived as a reader, held forth on the book The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.

It took me awhile to pick up the title, but I finally did so this autumn.

Published in 2021, this fictionalized account of Belle de Costa Greene, the real-life personal librarian of J.P. Morgan who curated and acquired Morgan’s unparalleled collection of rare-manuscripts, paints a portrait of a remarkable woman who lacked a university degree but who nonetheless navigated the rarefied world of Morgan, becoming an indispensable colleague along the way.

The story of anyone functioning as a right-hander to such an individual would be of interest, but what makes Greene’s role exceptional for her time were a myriad of factors, among them: her gender, her race, African American, and the fact that she passed as White.

Every good story needs tension, and all of the above propel this story along, as do the characters, including Greene’s remarkable family. Greene is born in Washington, D.C. and lives there for the first decade of her life, where her father’s brother, Uncle Mozart— how can you stop reading a book with a character named Uncle Mozart?— resides next door with his family, as does her beloved and doting paternal grandmother.

Greene’s father, the first African American graduate of Harvard, introduces her to art history, which fuels a passion that will transform her life and eventually lead her to work in the library at Princeton University, where she will befriend J.P. Morgan’s nephew, who eventually connects her to Morgan in New York City.

Aspects of the story bleed into romance novel territory, but despite that, I was very glad to learn Greene’s life story and look forward to seeing the exhibition devoted to Greene at the J.P. Morgan Library, on through May 4, 2025.