Dimensions
168 x 244 x 43mm
J P Morgan hired Belle de Costa Greene in 1905 to organise his rare book and manuscript collection. Ten years later, she had shaped the famous Pierpont Morgan Library collection and was a proto-celebrity in New York and the art world, reowned for her self-made expertise, her acerbic wit and her flirtatious relationships. Born to a family of free people of colour, Greene changed her name and invented a Portuguese grandmother to enter white society. In her new world she dined both at the tables of the highest society and with bohemian artists and activists. Greene is a pure fascination - the buyer of illuminated manuscripts who attracted others to her like moths to a flame.
