The Personal Librarian – Staff Review – Maddie

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (Request)(Cloudlibrary)
Belle de Costa Greene was hired in her twenties as the personal librarian for J.P. Morgan, cataloging and acquiring valuable manuscripts and art pieces for his new PierPoint Morgan Library. Through her work Belle became one of the most important people in the art and book world, known widely for her determination and shrewd negotiations at auctions.
But Belle has one important secret she must protect at all costs- her name is actually Belle Marion Greener and she is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first black Harvard graduate and advocate for equality. Her fair complexion allows her and her family to ‘pass’ as white and explain their olive-toned complexions on Portuguese heritage. In a post-reconstruction society when Jim-Crow and Segregation were just coming into place, Belle isn’t just trying to protect herself and her family, but also a legacy she is creating.
The Personal Librarian is based on the little known story of an extraordinary young woman who defied all the odds against her to create a legacy in a racist society that wouldn’t have accepted her under truer pretenses. Marie Benedict and Victoria Murray have done a great job with this novel and I recommend it for fans of Benedict’s other books as well as readers looking for a compelling historical fiction.
4 stars