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A Collection Of Leftovers
Every Johnsonian has probably heard that the Houghton Library at Harvard inherited the Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Samuel Johnson. Every Shakespearian has probably heard that Christie's auctioned off almost all of the Shakespeare books and other English Drama from the estate of Mary Viscountess Eccles. Not too many book collectors know where the rest of the books of the Four Oaks Library went to. After all the other collections were dispersed according to the wishes of Donald and Mary Hyde, their friend, Gabriel Austin, inherited "the leftovers" of the Four Oaks Library. I recently received a "collection of leftovers" from Gabriel Austin. For the past fifteen months, Gabriel Austin and I have been communicating with each other about books. He has become both friend and mentor, particularly when it comes to "learning me" about Samuel Johnson and/or the Donald and Mary Hyde Collections. Gabriel recommended several books for me to read, particularly the collected letters of certain authors. Some books I bought, while others I put on my Wants List. I don't have the Wants List anymore; the three parcels of books I received contained the letters of various authors, mostly those from the Age of Johnson. Gabriel had decided I should become a Collector of Collected Letters. To start me off, Gabriel gave me a presentation set of the Letters of Samuel Johnson. Mary Hyde Eccles had given him this set. It is signed by both Mary Hyde Eccles and Bruce Redford, the editor. All told, I received fifty-six volumes of collected letters, including eight volumes of the Percy Letters, a nine-volume set of the Letters of Horace Walpole, two-volume sets of the Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the Orrery Papers, and the Letters of Mrs.Montagu. Other volumes include the letters or correspondence of Thomas Warton, Elizabeth Bishop, James Joyce, George Birkbeck Hill, Samuel Lysons, the Burney Family, James Thompson, Tobias Smollett, Leo Stein, Sydney Carlyle Cockerell, George S. Gordon, Logan Pearsall Smith, Dylan Thomas, W. B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Maxwell E. Perkins, Max Beerbohm, Sir Thomas Bodley, and several others. Proof of Provenance abounds in many of these volumes, while others bear no marks of provenance whatsoever. Quite a few volumes contain the bookplate of Donald and Mary Hyde. Some volumes contain the toad bookplate of Mary Crapo Hyde. One volume bears the signature of Mary Morley Crapo. In another volume are the ex libris book label of R.W. Chapman, and the bookplate of Donald and Mary Hyde. Still another volume contains an inscription to Donald Hyde in the hand of L.F. Powell. Several volumes contain notes in the hand of Mary Hyde Eccles. Many volumes in this collection were presentation copies from the editors, while some other volumes were complimentary copies from the publishers. Every volume in this "collection of leftovers" from the Four Oaks Library of Donald and Mary Hyde will be read and cherished by this bibliomaniac. Jerry Morris, Book Collector, Man of Letters (mailman), Collector of Collected Letters. Welcome to Moi's Books About Books: http://www.tinyurl.com/hib7 My Sentimental Library http://www.picturetrail.com/mylibrary and moislibrary.com http://www.tinyurl.com/hisn |
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