Monday Moments Book Review - The Personal Librarian

 Wow and wow

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray kept me captivated for a weekend.  I tore through this book and savored the writing, the characters, and the impressive amount of research the authors did to keep this book  so authentic. Kudos. 

Belle da Costa Greene is a black woman passing as white in the 1900s.  She's brilliant in the world of art, books, and negotiating.  As  THE personal  librarian for J.P. Morgan, she  helps build and curate an impressive world of rare manuscripts, books, and  artworks for the new Morgan Library. 

Her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating made this a world class collection. 

Her secret is the story. 

Trust me. Just read this book and learn and appreciate an amazing woman.  Who cares  about her color? At that  time, she was a woman beyond it all.   Wow and wow and wow. 

New York: The Morgan Library

 NewYork City - love it, never have enough time to do everything on my list. I did get to the Morgan Libary this trip, and what a treat. Pierpont Morgan, financier, assembled his world class collection of books, bindings, medieval manuscripts, literary and historical manuscripts, plus drawings and prints in the 1890s.

 Today the library and museum, brownstone and new modern airy spaces, welcome the visitor into another world teeming with a vast rich history.

 Here is one view of the East Room, filled with rare books.

 Another view of the East Room. Note the stained glass windows, the vaulted decorated ceiling, wood carvings, and ancient tapestries.

Here's a postcard illustration, courtesy of the Morgan collection - A.A.Milne's Winnie the Pooh and his Ten Honey Pots by artist Ernest Howard Shepard. So many gems to unearth in The Morgan Library. It's heavenly.