Mary Eccles, Viscountess Eccles.

About Mary Eccles, Viscountess Eccles

Mary Morley Eccles, Viscountess Eccles was an American-British book collector and author. She was renowned for establishing one of the largest private collections of 18th century literature with her first husband, Donald Hyde. This includes works from Samuel Johnson and James Boswell. She also created an Oscar Wilde Collection which was bequeathed to the British Library in 2003. An obituary described her as 'one of the great American collectors of the last century, combining wealth, scholarship, and sensibility in a way that became rare to the point of extinction in her lifetime'.