What readers think of The Personal Librarian, plus links to write your own review.

I enjoy Marie Benedict's novels because there's always the hint of something suspenseful for the main character. Belle De La Costa Greene is the Personal Librarian for infamous investor and business magnate, J P Morgan. Belle encounters some good choices and some bad choices during her employment, with a great deal of courage and fortitude. Despite her love for family, friends and business associates, she does not possess enough individualism for herself.
The novel, with a New York setting during the early 1900's, follows a similar theme as Carnegie's Maid, also written by Marie Benedict. A pretty young girl takes employment with a very wealthy man in both stories, sharing income with her family. It is an enjoyable story, especially the information about collecting valuable historical art and books. Mr. Morgan's ruthless personality is quite evident.

Having visited the Morgan Library and Museum on my last visit to NYC, I was interested to learn more about the amazing woman who worked to build such a wonderful collection and exhibit it to the public. While I was not a fan of the writing style, I did enjoy reading about Bella da Costa Greene's life and accomplishments. Reading The Personal Librarian will bring this extraordinary woman to life for those unfamiliar with her and her story.

I love the subjects Marie Benedict chooses for her books. They always provide great historical insight of women who were ahead of their time and thus were not properly lauded for their accomplishments. I had never heard of Bella da Costa Greene, or of the fabulous library of J. P. Morgan, so both were a revelation. The writing is not complicated nor particularly outstanding, but her research is impressive. I always learn something from her books and for that, I am grateful to get to read another one.

The Personal Librarian is the little-known tale of Belle Da Costa Greene, the early twentieth-century woman who was Personal Librarian to financial titan JP Morgan. Widely admired for her knowledge, charm and shrewdness, Greene greatly shaped Morgan's vast book and manuscript collection before becoming the first Director of the Pierpont Morgan Library, once the collection was gifted to the people. As beautiful as she was erudite, Greene made a memorable splash during her decades long career close to New York's cultural center. Soundly researched and fast-paced, this collaborative effort between successful novelists, Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, will be welcome fodder for those who enjoy spirited stories starring strong, courageous women, though some will find its occasional romantic lit flourishes somewhat tedious.

This book is professionally written by the combination of authors, one cannot tell the difference where one takes over a particular scene. At the end of the book the authors have notes which gives the reader a hint as to who wrote what. They have chosen to write this book in the first person, thus influencing the readers closeness to the protagonist.

The personal librarian is Belle da Costa Green, and she begins working for J. Pierpont Morgan in 1905 through the recommendation of his well-respected nephew Junius Morgan. Ms. Green had worked at Princeton University as a librarian for 5 years giving her the opportunity of meeting Junius.

Green has a secret; however, she must guard the rest of her life. She is a black woman living the life of a white person. Green’s mother Genevieve Fleet Green formerly Genevieve Greener divorced Richard Greener, the first black man to graduated from Harvard University and raised her light skin family as white, while dropping the “r” from their names. She moved the family from Washington D.C. to New York City in a rundown small apartment close to Columbia University where her son Russell studied. Bella had in addition to the brother, two sisters who were schoolteachers. Genevieve ruled the family with an iron fist teaching the children how to guard their secret life as a white family.

Belle leads a fantastic life developing a close relationship with J. P. Morgan as she buried her black life and lived and worked as an unmarried white woman the rest of her long life, while financially supporting her immediate family. She had the respect of many outfoxed art dealers not only in North America, but Europe as well. Belle was intelligent, beautiful, and had an extraordinarily effervescent personality known for her sharp quips. She turns Morgan’s renowned personal library into a library for the public after his death. A lifetime dream for Green.
This is a fascinating read following Belle’s career as she develops the J. P. Morgan library. She has many lovers and many suspects she and Morgan were lovers. Ms. Green always answered these inquiries with the quip “We tried”, which leaves the gossips still wondering.

This was an interesting read on many levels. The novel depicts the story of Belle "Dacosta" Greene, the talented librarian of J P Morgan's vast art and manuscripts collection and her entrance into high society under a false persona given to her by her mother.

The authors intertwine issues of race, professional drive, and competition of the rich in acquiring valued, expensive pieces of antiquities into their personal collections. Belle is an intelligent, strong woman who navigates this world and the relationships it brings though her personal story is kept a mystery. An excellent read and education into the world J P Morgan and Belle.

I only knew that JP Morgan was wealthy. This story of his personal librarian is very engrossing. I knew nothing about manuscripts or books he acquired. She has a story of her own which was never brought to light during her lifetime. I enjoyed the story but was disappointed when the authors at the end of the book relate all the inconsistencies and liberties they took.

There are two kinds of readers: Those who finish every book they start—no matter what. After all, you never know what wonderful surprise awaits if you don't slog your way through it. And then there are those who say life is too short for a boring book. I am, for better or worse, in the first group. In the case of this book, I finished it so you don't have to start it!

This book about Belle da Costa Greene (aka Belle Marion Greener) is a hybrid between historical fiction and biography; it fails because it is neither.

It is billed as a novel, but there is no plot. Events trudge along but there is no dramatic story arc that we all expect in a novel, even historical fiction. If it were a straight-up biography, it would not be so insipid, trying to be something it is not. But it's a novel with imagined conversations and feelings that just come off as banal and even trite. The result? It's a boring 350-page book. The suspense, the drama, the magic that keep readers turning pages just isn't there. It's flat. And what is there is a glorified (made-up) soap opera. Yawn.

Written by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, this is the true story of Belle da Costa Greene, who served in the early 1900s as the personal librarian for J.P. Morgan at his Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City. It was Greene, working in a man's world, who was responsible for filling this library with priceless books—from rare illuminated medieval manuscripts to the Le Morte Darthur printed by Caxton in 1485, as well as original scores by Beethoven, Mozart, and Chopin and prints and drawings by Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance artists.

But Greene harbored a big (big!) secret: She was Black and passed as White. As a Black woman, she would never have been hired for this position. She, her mother, three sisters, and one brother moved from Washington, D.C. to New York City where her mother, Genevieve Ida Fleet Greener, decided the best way for them to live was to deny who they were and pass as white. They changed their last name to Greene. Her father, Richard Theodore Greener, the first Black student and graduate of Harvard who was light enough to pass as well, was so angry with this decision that he left the family. To account for her slightly darker skin, Belle changed her middle name to da Costa and created a fake story about a Portuguese grandmother. And it worked. After years in the job, Belle was declared the most successful career woman in the world.

All this is true. Benedict and Murray conducted extensive research to write this novel, but since Greene was never "outed" in her life, never married, although she did have lovers, and devoted her existence to work, there isn't a flashy or remarkable storyline with which to work. It wasn't until 1999—nearly 50 years after Greene died—that a biographer revealed her true identity.

I am being generous with three stars, which I am only giving because of the prodigious and impressive amount of research that went into the book. Unfortunately, this hybrid of historical fiction and biography just doesn't succeed. Skip it.