Eccles, Mary Hyde

Mary Hyde Eccles was one of the world's leading collectors of books and manuscripts from the 1940s until her death in 2003. She was also a distinguished literary scholar, and an important benefactor to numerous libraries and cultural institutions. This collection relates to her essay "Not in Chapman," a catalog of unpublished Samuel Johnson letters. As this project neared completion in 1964, a new cache of letters from Samuel Johnson to Charlotte Lennox was discovered in the vault of the British Linen Bank, which triggered a series of negotiations before the essay could be revised and published.

Eccles is an American collector and author.

Eccles is an American scholar, collector, and author.

Mary Hyde Eccles was one of the world's leading collectors of books and manuscripts from the 1940s until her death in 2003. She was also a distinguished literary scholar, and an important benefactor to numerous libraries and cultural institutions. She was born as Mary Morley Crapo on 1912, married Donald Frizell Hyde in 1939, and after his death in 1966 remarried to David Eccles, Viscount Eccles in 1984.

Anglophile collector and scholar. Mary Morley Crapo was born 1912 July 8 in Detroit; she was graduated from Vassar College and earned a Ph.D. in English literature from Columbia University. In 1939 she married Donald Frizell Hyde, a lawyer. He was a serious collector of Samuel Johnson and their Four Oaks Farm in Somerville, New Jersey evolved into a major center for the study of Johnson and his circle. The Hydes established the Four Oaks Foundation for the furtherance of eighteenth century scholarship. After her husband's death in 1966 Mary Hyde maintained her association with the Grolier Club, and in 1976 she was among the first women to be elected to membership. She was also a member of the Hroswitha Club and became the first woman elected to membership in the Roxburghe Club, the premier club for British bibliophiles.

In 1984 Mary Hyde married David, Viscount Eccles, and with his encouragement she launched the five-volume Hyde Edition of edition of the letters of Samuel Johnson published by the Princeton University Press (1992-1994). Mary Eccles's major publications centered on Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Thrale, but in 1980 she published an edition of the correspondence of George Bernard Shaw and Alfred Douglas. For her ninetieth birthday in 2002 the Grolier Club published Mary Hyde Eccles: A Miscellany of Her Essays and Addresses. She bequeathed the Mary Hyde Collection of Samuel Johnson to the Houghton Library at Harvard University, and with her Viscount Eccles established the Eccles Center for American Studies at the British Library. She died 2003 August 26.

Mary Hyde Eccles was one of the world's leading collectors of books and manuscripts from the 1940s until her death in 2003. She was also a distinguished literary scholar and an important benefactor to numerous libraries and cultural institutions.

She was born Mary Morley Crapo on 1912 July 8, to parents Stanford Tappan Crapo and Emma Caroline Morley Crapo. Her early years were spent in and around Detroit, Michigan, where her father was a prosperous railroad executive and cement manufacturer. She received her B.A. from Vassar College in 1934, and her Ph.D. in English from Columbia in 1947.

Mary Morley Crapo married lawyer Donald Frizell Hyde (1909-1966) on 1939 Sept. 16. He was a graduate of Ohio State University and Harvard Law School. During the first year of their marriage, they resided in Grosse Point, Michigan, and then moved to New York City in January of 1941. They spent part of 1942 in Washington, D.C. before returning to New York City. In 1943, they purchased Four Oaks Farm, a large estate in Somerville, New Jersey, which became their primary residence.

Soon after their marriage, the Hydes began collecting books and manuscripts relating to Samuel Johnson and his circle, making their first major acquisitions at the A.E. Newton sales in 1940 and 1941. As they continued to expand their collection, Four Oaks Farm became an important site for research into Johnson and his circle. The Hydes were instrumental in founding the Johnsonians, a select club of American Johnson enthusiasts, which first gathered at Four Oaks Farm on Johnson's birthday in 1946. In 1948, they acquired the great R.B. Adam collection, which established them as the foremost Johnson collectors in the world.

The Hydes had numerous other collecting interests in addition to Johnson. They began collecting Japanese prints and illustrated books in 1960. They also assembled an important collection of Oscar Wilde material, which was later left to the British Library.

Mary Hyde established her repuation as an important literary scholar after Donald Frizell Hyde's death in 1966. She had already published Playwriting for Elizabethans, 1600-1605, an expansion of her doctoral dissertation, in 1949. Her two monographs on Johnson's circle, The Impossible Friendship: Boswell and Mrs. Thrale (1972) and The Thrales of Streatham Park (1977), remain important works in their field. She edited Bernard Shaw and Alfred Douglas: A Correspondence (1982) and co-edited James Boswell's Book of Company at Auchinleck, 1782-1795 (1995). Her research, collections, and financial support played an integral role in the publication of The Letters of Samuel Johnson (1992-1994), edited by Bruce Redford. Many of her shorter works were collected in 2002 as Mary Hyde Eccles: A Miscellany of her Essays and Addresses .

In addition to her scholarly and collecting activities, Mary Hyde was an important supporter of cultural institutions in the United States and Great Britain. With her first husband, she established the Four Oaks Foundation in 1953 to provide financial aid to college students. Her Japanese collection was auctioned in 1988 to benefit the Pierpont Morgan Library. She was also the primary supporter of the 1998 effort to restore Auchinleck, James Boswell's ancestral estate in Scotland. Harvard University's Houghton Library owes her a special debt. She funded the construction of its Donald Frizell Hyde Rooms (completed in 1979), and bequeathed the Donald Hyde and Mary Hyde Eccles Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson to the library in 2003.

In 1984 she married David Eccles, Viscount Eccles (1904-1999), a prominent book collector who had served as Great Britain's education minister. They maintained dual residences in England and at Four Oaks Farm, and she assumed the title of Viscountess Eccles. Together they established the David and Mary Eccles Center for American Studies at the British Library in 1992. Lord Eccles died in 1999, and Lady Eccles on 2003 August 26.