Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade by Janet Skeslien Charles

Title: Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade
Author: Janet Skeslien Charles
Publication: Atria Books, hardcover, 2024
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: France

Description: Jessie Carson, a children’s librarian at the New York Public Library (NYPL) in 1918, is flattered when Anne Morgan, daughter of the most powerful financier in America's history, J.P. Morgan, invites and pays her way to France to help with war relief work. Morgan, a philanthropist, has organized and funded the American Committee for Devastated France (CARD is the French abbreviation) and wants Carson to organize a library for children in a region recently liberated from the Germans. Carson has longed for an opportunity to travel and be part of something bigger than herself, yet is conscious that most of Morgan’s volunteers are affluent young women. Upon arrival in the North of France, just forty miles from the front, she is disappointed to find the building intended for the library has been damaged by the Germans and most of the books destroyed. Carson, now nicknamed Kit by her new colleagues, rolls up her sleeves and helps with the humanitarian work being done for area families, while sharing books she brought with her. Another librarian, Wendy Peterson, working at the NYPL in 1987, comes across materials about Anne Morgan’s work in France and starts researching Carson’s story, determined these women’s work should not be forgotten.

My Impression: This is a dual timeline novel based on the true story of an NYPL librarian who went to France during WWI to establish a children’s library. It is also a much more sympathetic depiction of Anne Morgan than The Personal Librarian, about Belle de Costa Greene, the woman who passed as white while helping J.P. Morgan’s amass his collection (Anne was portrayed as asking Belle intrusive questions about her ethnicity until Belle responded with pointed comments about Anne’s female friends). Of course, both books are fictional.  Here, Anne Morgan and her friend, Dr. Anne Murray Dike, are providing valuable resources to a region devastated by German occupation and destruction. Carson is a welcome addition to this group, showing empathy and an ability to connect to local families – dispensing books from the trunkful she managed to bring with her from New York (how did she manage to find so many French editions?) and, along with the other Cards, helping them rebuild their lives.

It’s good to find a book about WWI instead of the WWII and this is a feel-good story about books and libraries, which I found enjoyable. The people in Northern France have lost most of their possessions but help Carson restore the library to create a place where all can benefit from the power of reading. I appreciated learning about the disapproval of contemporary French librarians regarding books for the working classes or children, as well as Carson’s determination to make both accessible. At the beginning of the book, Carson is insecure and seemed somewhat wooden but she overcomes tragedy and matures during her time in France. Charles explains in the Author’s Note that she came across Carson (1876-1959) while researching her earlier book, The Paris Library. Wendy, the late-20th century librarian, finds out about Carson accidentally herself and becomes fascinated by her, and starts writing Carson’s story for her New School writing class – and finally impresses her jaded professor.

Source: Advance Reading Copy provided by the publisher. This is my eleventh book for Marg's 2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. The book is well researched although one jarring thing was the use of the word “kids” which seemed too colloquial for 1918.