Online Book Discussion - The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

Online Book Discussion via Zoom

Led by Dorothy Pawlowski, Head of Adult Services at the Ridgefield Library, this book discussion will focus on the new title, The Personal Librarian by New York Times best-selling author Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. This book is an historical novel about Belle da Costa Greene, the first librarian and director for the Morgan Library in New York City. This remarkable woman who passed as white as a light-skinned African American amassed one the most important collections of rare books and manuscripts in the United States. Copies of The Personal Librarian are available to check out or download with your Ridgefield Library card, or to purchase from Books On the Common.

Please register below to receive the Zoom link to this book discussion. 

Upcoming ARTalk - October 17, 2021 at 2 pm in the Main Program Room with Dr. Daria Rose Foner

The Personal Librarian book discussion precedes the Library's kick-off ARTalk for the 2021-22 season on Sunday, October 17 at 2:00 pm in the Library's Main Program Room.The title of the ARTalk is Belle da Costa Greene: The Woman Who Made the Morgan Library and it will be presented by Dr. Daria Rose Foner from the Morgan Library and Museum.

Belle da Costa Greene (1879-1950) was one of the greatest librarian-scholars of the twentieth-century. Initially hired as J. Pierpont Morgan’s private librarian, Greene became the Morgan Library’s inaugural director when it opened as a public research institution in 1924. This ARTalk introduces Greene and traces her life story from its origins in an upper middle-class African-American community in Washington D.C. to her ascension to the pinnacle of her profession and explores how the racial barriers of Jim Crow America led Greene, her mother, and her siblings to “pass” as white. 

Dr. Daria Rose Foner is the Research Associate to the Director at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. At the Morgan, she has worked on a range of exhibitions and collections-based initiatives and done considerable research on the history of the institution. She is the Co-Director of the Belle Greene – Bernard Berenson letters project and with the Director has co-written an essay on J. P. Morgan as a collector of rare books and manuscripts that will be published next summer in Building the Bookman’s Paradise. 

Please click here to register for the October 17 ARTalk with Dr. Daria Rose Foner. 

Please note: For the Online Book Discussion, the Ridgefield Library cannot guarantee your security or privacy on third party websites or applications.