The Personal Librarian: A GMA Book Club Pick

Name: The Personal Librarian: A GMA Book Club Pick
SKU: 62839
Availability: InStock

4.5 | 46,853 ratings

Price: 2.99

Last update: 04-04-2025

About this item

The Instant New York Times Bestseller! A Good Morning America* Book Club Pick!

Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR! Named a Notable Book of the Year by the Washington Post!

“Historical fiction at its best!”*

A remarkable novel about J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, the Black American woman who was forced to hide her true identity and pass as white in order to leave a lasting legacy that enriched our nation, from New York Times bestselling authors Marie Benedict and 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 in New York City society 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 create 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 daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle’s complexion isn’t dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white—her complexion is dark because she is African American.

The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths she must go to—for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.

Top reviews from the United States

jane maulfair

Beautifully researched!

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2024

The writing is exquisite. The aferward narrative about how the writers came to the story is so very helpful to the reader. Depicting a powerful woman in the time period and on the heels of a new era in art and social attitudes. - brilliant.

CDD

Informative, eye-opening novel

Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2024

Although it's a novel, it's about an amazingly strong and brave woman who played a very real and important role in history. Her role was as much about the racial status at the time as about the historical collections she amassed and the many players in her life that she saved them for.

Stacey Rae

Absolutely love this book

Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2024

Has you interested from the beginning, about a young colored girl trying to make a place for herself in life. In the 1900s there wasn’t much of a future for people of color, especially a woman. So what does she do, she lands herself a job doing what she loves for one of the biggest banking tycoons of the time… does it with heart, dedication, and determination. By the time she’s done, the world knows her as a forced to be reckoned with in the art world while building an amazing relationship with JP Morgan and his family.
Again, how you ask ? Yeah… she does it all living and portraying herself as a white woman.
Yep. Amazing.!
Bravo Belle !

Cindy M.

Best Historical Book I've Read in a Awhile

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2024

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.

Amazon Customer

great book

Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2024

I really liked the book. It was a very good example of the time. I found it interesting looking into that era. The characters were established well and were intriguing.

Patricia E. Kemp

Goodvread

Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2024

Interesting facts historically brought together in a very readable novel

Not My Real Name (TM)

fascinating topic. so-so execution.

Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2024

This book makes me want to know more about the extremely interesting Belle Greene. Turning to the current Wikipedia article about her, I find… exactly the same information, maybe minus her tendency to get drunk at parties. But still, kudos to the authors for shining a light on Belle. Five stars for that.
Turning to the reading experience, then, where to begin? The prose and imagery screams YA. It’s been bunged down on the page using completely current vernacular, with concepts and turns of phrase that nobody in 1910 America would have been using, and lots of moony, nonspecific, romantic Thoughts About Boys. Anyone who loves the Paper Magician books will feel right at home. Always a good idea when you are trying to make a historical period accessible to pre-teens, so I’d still recommend this book unreservedly to them. And for the rest of us, there’s no reason to go to the other extreme and try to imitate the Edwardians. So it’s ok, and readable enough, better than a cereal box. But two stars off. Wait until you can check it out for free.

Linda T White

Amazing story

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2024

I started reading this some time & didn’t finish but am so happy I did. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about JP Morgan & the library, his acquisitions & desire to leave a lasting legacy. These authors did a fantastic job of weaving fact with fiction about Belle & her story, and the time period she lived in, which in many ways, doesn’t seem that different from our own.

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