An Illuminated Life: Belle da Costa Greene's Journey from Prejudice to Privilege
Biography Art History Women's History African-American Studies Gilded Age History Collectibles & Antiques Library & Information Science
Heidi Ardizzone’s An Illuminated Life: Belle da Costa Greene’s Journey from Prejudice to Privilege is the first full-scale biography of the woman who became J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian and the guiding force behind one of the greatest rare-book collections ever assembled. At 624 richly illustrated pages, this 2007 Norton hardcover traces Greene’s climb from a Black family that passed as white in segregated America to the inner sanctum of Gilded-Age high finance and European auction rooms. Readers discover how she negotiated with dealers, outwitted rival collectors, and quietly reshaped the canon of medieval manuscripts and incunabula while guarding the secret of her racial identity. The book’s 100+ photographs—many from Morgan’s archives—let you see the glorious miniatures, bindings, and catalog cards she handled, making the volume itself a bibliophile’s object of desire.
What makes this copy special is its pristine, collector-friendly format: an unblemished dust-jacketed hardcover that has never been inscribed or ex-library, stored in a smoke-free home and now offered in good, tight condition. Weighing more than two pounds and printed on heavy stock, it doubles as both a scholarly landmark and a handsome gift for lovers of art, libraries, or women’s history. Young-adult and adult readers alike will be drawn to the spy-thriller tension of Greene’s double life and to the larger story of how African-American expertise quietly shaped America’s cultural patrimony. Keywords: Belle da Costa Greene biography, Morgan Library rare books, African-American passing narrative, women in art history, illuminated manuscripts collector.
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