They worked on revisions together, sentence by sentence, putting their stamp of approval on every word as a team. Marie, the history buff brought specifics of the family, the settings and the time period to life, and Victoria provided a Black woman’s point of view and allowed us to see the world through Belle’s eyes. Belle took on the challenge with grace and charm, and made her mark in history in the most impactful way she could. Passing was a huge risk surrounded by fear of discovery and the pressure to always do better and be smarter. Together, authors Victoria Christopher Murray and Marie Benedict skillfully and seamlessly connect the dots of factual history with fiction based on what they imagined could have been during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Unfortunately, very little is known about Belle she had requested all written material about her be destroyed to protect her family as well as the legacy of the Morgan library. She became an incredibly important person in history and while working for the most powerful man in his time, she became one of the most successful women of her time. The father was an activist and felt he had to fight for his right to be equal, so they separated and the family unit fell apart.Īs a white woman, Belle took full advantage of the opportunities Black women would never be offered and when JP Morgan hired her to develop and organize his personal library of art and rare books, she continued to keep her identity secret, and her skills and talent did not go unnoticed. In 1875 The Supreme Court overturned the Civil Rights Act, and when segregation and racism rose to new heights and there were threats of lynching young children, Belle’s mother decided living life as a Black family was too dangerous, and in order to be treated with equality, she decided she and the children would live their lives as white people. Greener, the first Black man to graduate from Harvard University, and her mother, Genevieve Ida Fleet, a well educated Black woman. The Personal Librarian is one of those books everyone seems to learn from and love and I think it is an historical fiction must read! Belle de Costa Greene was a light skinned Black woman raised by her father, Richard T.
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