Author Victoria Christopher Murray talks "The Personal Librarian," Part 1

Talk about burying the lede. When Victoria Christopher Murray's agent sent over a proposal to co-write a book with Marie Benedict, Murray could not have been less interested. She glanced at the first of the proposal's three pages -- single spaced and in tiny font -- and immediately tossed the document aside. She was not up for writing about J.P. Morgan. But her agent was persistent, and three months later Murray got to the proposal's last line. It read, "No one knew Belle da Costa Greene was Black until she died." What?!!! Benedict finally had Murray's attention. And thus "The Personal Librarian" was born. 

The book was this year's selection for Sarasota's One Book/One Community program. The idea is "to help foster the expression of ideas within the community through the shared love of reading." To this end, the library hosts a variety of free events relating to the selected book. This year's festivities included a highly engaging talk by Murray. But before I turn to what she said about the best-selling book, I must first share some of Murray's story. 

Murray has been writing a long time. She penned her first stories as a kid. Her parents encouraged reading and took Murray and her sister on weekly visits to the local library. But there was a problem. The library allowed patrons to check out only three books at a time. What's a young reader to do? Murray took matters into her own hands and wrote her own books between visits. Her sister declared this a stupid idea because Victoria already knew the ending. I suspect she became Victoria's earliest fan. 

With Victoria Christopher Murray

Murray created her first masterpiece at age seven. I was laughing too hard to take proper notes, but here's the gist. The book was called "Betty and the Witch," and Betty perpetually wore a red cape. Betty had six siblings -- three brothers who happened to be wolves and three sisters who were pigs. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The tale was put on as a play for her second grade class, with Murray assuming the role of the Witch. 

Despite these auspicious beginnings, Murray didn't turn to writing as a career for many years. She had plenty of ideas, but she just couldn't get herself started. She'd tried the discipline of writing three pages a day, then one page, then one paragraph. Still, she failed. Eventually her ever-supportive husband urged her to give writing a serious try or to forego her dream. (I'm not kidding that he was supportive. His wedding present to her was a computer.) 

Murray developed a plan. She would commit to writing one word a day. Yes, a single word. And it worked! Some days her entire output consisted of something pithy like, "she said." But by the end of three months, Murray had a first draft. She quit her job and turned to writing full-time. 

Murray is now a celebrated author with 30+ books and multiple NAACP Image Awards to her name. Several of her books have been made into movies for the Lifetime channel (which explains why I haven't seen them). Over the years, she's developed a rhythm. Still, Murray says that collaboratively creating "The Personal Librarian" with Benedict was the best writing experience of her life (although I don't know how she can top "Betty and the Witch"). Stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog, in which I'll share Murray's stories about their collaboration and, of course, Belle's life.