Scan barcode
A review by ldcornell
Belle Greene by Alexandra Lapierre
5.0
I had this as 4-stars. I couldn't do it. It has to be five :-)
What an incredibly well-written, thoroughly researched , and totally fascinating novel that tells the story of Belle da Costa Greene, who became the director of magnate J. Pierpont Morgan’s library in 1905.
Belle became a librarian at Princeton in 1902, where she met and impressed JP Morgan’s nephew. From him she learned a great deal about collections and collecting. When he suggested to his uncle that she might make a fine director for the personal library he was building, he (eventually) hired her. She was a dynamo ... hard-working, flamboyant, extremely intelligent, beautiful, and a most talented appraiser and connoisseur of manuscripts and works of art. She became the highest paid woman in America and was well-known in the top auction houses and in the most prominent social and cultural circles. (And she knew many of the men in these realms intimately.)
In fact, Belle da Costa Greene was born Belle Marion Greener, daughter of a lawyer (the first Black graduate of Harvard) and a Black mother. By 1898 her father had left the family, and her mother and siblings decided that they would leave their extended family, change their name, and move from Washington, DC, and ... being light-skinned ... pass as white. They fully realized that they could never go back, and if they were discovered in a violently racist America, they would lose everything.
What an incredibly well-written, thoroughly researched , and totally fascinating novel that tells the story of Belle da Costa Greene, who became the director of magnate J. Pierpont Morgan’s library in 1905.
Belle became a librarian at Princeton in 1902, where she met and impressed JP Morgan’s nephew. From him she learned a great deal about collections and collecting. When he suggested to his uncle that she might make a fine director for the personal library he was building, he (eventually) hired her. She was a dynamo ... hard-working, flamboyant, extremely intelligent, beautiful, and a most talented appraiser and connoisseur of manuscripts and works of art. She became the highest paid woman in America and was well-known in the top auction houses and in the most prominent social and cultural circles. (And she knew many of the men in these realms intimately.)
In fact, Belle da Costa Greene was born Belle Marion Greener, daughter of a lawyer (the first Black graduate of Harvard) and a Black mother. By 1898 her father had left the family, and her mother and siblings decided that they would leave their extended family, change their name, and move from Washington, DC, and ... being light-skinned ... pass as white. They fully realized that they could never go back, and if they were discovered in a violently racist America, they would lose everything.