Eccles, Mary Hyde (1912–2003)
Eccles, Mary Hyde (1912–2003)
American-born viscountess, philanthropist and bibliophile. Name variations: Mary Hyde; Lady Eccles; Viscountess Eccles. Born Mary Morley Crapo, July 8, 1912, in Detroit, Michigan; died Aug 26, 2003, at her home, Four Oaks Farm, in Somerset Co., New Jersey; Vassar College, BS; Columbia University, MA literature; m. Donald Frizell Hyde (lawyer), 1939 (died 1966); m. David Eccles, Viscount Eccles (former Conservative education minister and collector), 1984 (died 1999).
With 1st husband, began collecting ephemera on Samuel Johnson and Oscar Wilde, among others (1941), which grew to become the Hyde Collection, one of the world's finest collections of 18th-century English literature; wrote The Impossible Friendship: Boswell and Mrs. Thrale (1972) and The Thrales of Streatham Park (1976); published a new edition of Samuel Johnson's letters, called The Hyde Edition (1992–94); with 2nd husband, established the David and Mary Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library (1991).
See also Mary Hyde Eccles: A Miscellany of her Essays and Addresses (Grolier Club).