The Personal Librarian

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray is historical fiction based on the life of Belle da Costa Greene, a Black woman who passed as white of Portuguese descent. In the novel, published in 2021, her assumed identity allows her to rise in the world of rare art and book collection when she becomes personal librarian to J.P. Morgan, steel magnate. The novel traces the gains and losses that come with her choice.

Plot Summary

Belle da Costa Greene, born Belle Marion Greener, is a Princeton-educated librarian who lands a high-profile job with steel magnate J.P. Morgan. What J.P. and the elite New Yorkers she encounters do not know is that Belle is a Black woman passing as white. Belle quickly learns that being white will not allow her to overcome prejudices against women working in the male-dominated field of art and rare book collecting. She also learns at a party at the Vanderbilt mansion that women in this world are bold and use flirtation as social currency, an approach that runs counter to the modesty and invisibility Genevieve, Belle’s mother, has always advised.

In several flashbacks, the reader learns more about Belle’s history. Belle’s parents, Richard and Genevieve, had a promising start in life. Richard, the first Black man to graduate from Harvard, married Genevieve, the beautiful and ambitious daughter of the elite Fleet family of Washington, D.C., and moved his family to South Carolina so he could work as a philosophy professor at an integrated state university. The family later left under threat of lynching when Reconstruction ended in the South and the school became segregated.

Genevieve never forgot the precariousness of that time. Once the family moved to New York, she listed the family as white to avoid ejection from their fine New York apartment. When Richard discovered this lie, he abandoned the family. From that moment, Belle became the focus of Genevieve’s ambitions to secure the family’s financial future—by passing them as white.

In the present, Belle announces her arrival to the New York collecting scene when she outbids the white male crowd at an auction she attends as J.P.’s surrogate. She dresses in bright feminine clothes to stand out in the crowd and realizes that flaunting rather than hiding her gender and unconventional olive-toned skin is the best way to avoid questions about her identity. Belle’s successes are complicated by threats from Anne, J.P.’s daughter, who asks Belle about rumors about Belle’s racial identity. In addition, J.P., a known womanizer, implies that he would like her to become his lover. Belle feels the strain of maintaining her white identity and navigating sexism as she establishes her professional reputation. During a trip to Europe, Belle outwits seasoned dealers and collectors, a triumph that pleases J.P. and cements her reputation as a force to be reckoned with.

Belle’s life changes dramatically when she meets Bernard Berenson, a married art historian in an open marriage with Mary, a teacher and writer. Belle establishes an emotional relationship with Bernard despite the rumors among the New York elite that Bernard is Jewish and thus an outsider. J.P. eventually forbids Belle from engaging in a relationship with Bernard, but realizing that traditional marriage and motherhood are unavailable to her, Belle decides that being with Bernard is the perfect alternative.

Belle meets up with Bernard in Europe during what is supposed to be a work trip. This episode ends in disaster when Belle gets pregnant and Bernard refuses to accompany her to a London abortion clinic. Once home, Belle grows increasingly reckless as she tires of her racial passing and deals with her own heartbreak. Matters with J.P. come to a head when Belle is forced to reject J.P.’s sexual passes. Belle is not able to move on from these difficulties until she reconnects with her father.

Belle’s relationship with J.P. sours, but J.P. dies, leaving his son Jack as heir. In his will, J.P. guarantees Belle a job for at least a year and leaves her a fortune that makes her independently wealthy. Jack agrees to keep most of the collection intact and to turn it into a public library open to academics and ordinary people alike. Belle resumes her relationship with Bernard, but she ends the relationship after discovering that Bernard has been selling information to dealers about her plans for the collection.

The novel flashes forward to decades later. The library is a respected institution with Belle at its head, but she still guards her privacy closely. In her later years, she burns all of her personal correspondence to prevent the secret of her identity from coming out. She hopes that one day, when the world is a place with more equality, someone will discover the truth of who she was.