Mary Hyde’s Wilde side
via the Exlibris email list:
The Collector as Artist: Lady Eccles and Oscar Wilde.
John Stokes
Monday 11 January 2010 at 18.00 at the British Library Conference Centre 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB.
Taking Lady Eccles’ magnificent donation of material relating to Oscar Wilde and his circle to the British Library as its example, the talk will explore the ways in which the creativity of the collector can, in turn, inspire the imagination of the scholar.
Mary, Viscountess Eccles (1912 – 2003), was one of the foremost collectors of her time, amassing an outstanding wealth of material relating to Wilde which she bequeathed to the British Library. The Eccles Collection of Oscar Wilde comprises almost 2,000 items, including manuscripts (correspondence, works, etc.) printed books (amongst them a number of presentation copies and books from Wilde’s own library) and a wide range of ephemera. This talk celebrates the completion of the cataloguing of the collection which is now available through the Library’s online catalogues.
John Stokes is Emeritus Professor of Modern British Literature in the Department of English at King’s College London. Together with Dr Mark Turner, also of King’s College, he is now editing Wilde’s journalism for the Oxford English Texts edition of the Complete Works.
The talk will be followed by a drinks reception.
Attendance is free, but please register your name with Teresa Harrington at the British Library.
