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77 GREENE, Belle da Costa. Typed letter signed on Pierpont Morgan Library letterhead. New York: 7 February 1931 ; [together with:] MINER, Dorothy (ed.) Studies in Art and Literature for Belle da Costa Greene. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954 Together 2 items. Typed letter signed: single sheet (280 × 202 mm) of cream paper with The Pierpont Morgan Library letterhead, watermarked with the Library’s seal, type written across one side (comprising approximately 4 full lines of text), signed “Belle da Costa Greene” in black ink. Studies : quarto. Original dark green cloth, spine lettered in gilt. With the dust jacket. Nu- merous black and white photographic illustrations. Typed letter signed: top edge rough, creased as usual, with two short, closed tears to right edge; in excellent condition. Studies : a near-fine copy, the dust jacket sunned with some chips and rubbing to extremities. A formal typed letter signed from Belle da Costa Greene, written in her role as the first director of the Pierpont Morgan Library, to acclaimed military surgeon Frank Lester Pleadwell of the Metropol- itan Club in Washington, DC, acquiescing to the recipient’s request to “make any use you desire of the Halleck and Drake’s Croaker poems in this library, of which we sent you photostats”. Material signed by Greene is exceptionally scarce in commerce; this is the first such example we have come across. The majority of her profes- sional correspondence is archived in the collections of the Morgan, and it is believed that she burned all her personal correspondence
prior to her death. The letter is paired here with a fine copy of the Festschrift prepared for Greene and edited by Dorothy Miner. This volume of essays was first conceived to mark the occasion of Greene’s retirement from the Morgan in 1948, but when she died in 1950, four years prior to publication, it became a monument to her character, influence, and international reputation, featuring con- tributions by 51 distinguished American and European scholars. Though born Belle Marion Greener (1883–1950), Greene amend- ed her surname and substituted her middle name for the Portu- guese “da Costa” to pass as white and distance herself from her an- cestry: her mother was from a prominent African-American family in Washington, DC, and her father was the first African-American student and graduate of Harvard. In 1905, aged 26 and working at the Princeton University Library, Greene was introduced to finan- cier J. Pierpont Morgan. This momentous meeting led to her ap- pointment as Morgan’s personal librarian, and she spent the next four decades tirelessly amassing one of the world’s greatest librar- ies of books, manuscripts, and art. Renowned for her expertise in illuminated manuscripts, her formidable bargaining powers, her intellect and outspokenness, Greene became a leading figure in the rare book world. When the Morgan became a public institution in 1924, Greene was named its first director. £1,750 [131021] 78 (GUILD OF WOMEN BINDERS.) GRAY, Thomas. Elegy written in a Country Churchyard. London: printed for the Guild of Women Binders, 1899 Octavo. Original brown crushed morocco by the Guild of Women Binders, spine lettered in gilt, foliate frame finely tooled in gilt to covers within single rule frame tooled in gilt, turn-ins ruled in gilt, edges green. Photogravure fron- tispiece, illustrated title page, decorated initials, and 11 photogravure plates with tissue guards by R. W. A. Rouse. Spine faintly toned, slight rubbing to extrem- ities, a couple of marks to covers, shallow dent to foot of front cover, light off- setting to endpapers, contents clean and bright; a very good, handsome, copy. first edition thus, limited issue, number 70 of 100 cop- ies printed on japon for the guild of women binders and
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