Belle Greene
Alexandra Lapierre’s account of Belle da Costa Greene, the librarian largely responsible for the Morgan Library in New York, will astonish and impress readers. Belle Greene is a historical figure, well-known in cultural circles in New York during the first third of the 20th century. Largely self-taught, she soaked up knowledge from book and art connoisseurs throughout the world. J. Pierpont Morgan, who hired Greene to manage his library, trusted her to bid on his behalf at auctions. Greene interacted with a parade of celebrities, including Bernard Berenson, one of her many lovers. As Morgan increased Greene’s salary, she amassed wealth unheard of for a single woman of her era.
While building her career, Belle Greene passed for white. Greene, her mother, and her siblings made a pact to distance themselves from their light-skinned father, Richard Greener. He was a celebrated African American, the first to graduate from Harvard. He had abandoned the family, giving them an opportunity to reimagine their background, their names, and even their ages.
Lapierre depicts Greene as brilliant, deceitful, and disloyal. The novel stays close to the facts of Greene’s life, so readers will see no transformation, with one exception when she is in her forties. Without the usual arc of change to frame her story, Lapierre instead expertly builds tension over the question of how Greene’s Black identity will be discovered. Readers have a sense of that at the beginning, but not until the end does Lapierre detail the dramatic conclusion to the family’s decision to pass.
Belle’s story, as told by Lapierre, is compelling and well-crafted. Readers uninterested in the history of rare books and art might find some sections tedious, but most will be intrigued by Greene’s participation in the world of collectors.
