Since historical fiction is one of my favorite genre's it's no surprise that I loved this book. I have already read two of Marie Benedict's other books (Carnegie's Maid and The Other Einstein), which I also loved. What's not to love about historical women who were extremely intelligent and bold in times that women were supposed to be "barefoot and pregnant". I have great admiration for these women who could not be kept in the box that society assigned them. What's even better, Belle da Costa Greene was renowned for her intelligence and expertise. She did not have to "hide behind a man". JP Morgan let her take charge of his library.
Belle da Costa Greene (nee Belle Marion Greener) was an African American whose father was the first Black graduate of Harvard and spent his life fighting for equality. Things were looking promising in the years after the Civil War in that regard, but white supremacy and segregation prevailed by the early 1900s. Belle's mother saw the way the nation was headed and made the decision to have her family pass as "white" to give them the best chance possible to be successful. Belle and her brother had olive-toned skin, the darkest of the family, so they assigned themselves a Portuguese heritage to account for their skin tone. Belle's three sisters had fairer skin, especially the youngest girl Teddy. Belle's father left the family because of this decision, so Belle and her siblings lived with their mother in New York.
Belle was a fascinating woman. She made the decision to be as bold as possible in the public eye so that she was hiding in plain sight. She made herself indispensable to JP Morgan, which was both good and bad. He felt like he "owned" her, which was ironic of course. But the two of them together build a remarkable library - with his money and her intelligence about original manuscripts and artwork. When JP Morgan died unexpectedly and his son, Jack Morgan, took over the library, Belle had to work especially hard to get Jack to understand the cultural relevance of the library instead of him just seeing the library as an "asset" that could be sold off bit by bit when they needed money. Belle was able to fulfill her dream of opening up the JP Morgan Library to the public.
Women who are brilliant in business are not always brilliant in love, however. It drove me crazy that Belle kept going back to Bernard Berenson, a married man who had an "open marriage". He was a schemer and a coward and treated Belle horribly at times. But this appears to be the only man that Belle truly loved in her lifetime. Go figure.
Wendy's Rating: *****
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