Daphne Du Maurier - Gollancz files (three boxes).
DAPHNE DU MAURIER
GOLLANCZ PUBLISHING FILES, 1936-1981
Expansive files of correspondence, contracts, and more, showing du Maurier’s active, ongoing dialogue
with her editors through composition and publication of her works from soup to nuts. Rebecca is by far the
work best represented herein: Gollancz preserved over 150 pages of letters. Du Maurier, who elevated,
more than once, plots and themes of romantic novels to the level of literary fiction, has been posthumously
identified as potentially bi-sexual; and in discussing her work she employs sexual terminology to
distinguish parts of the brain and types of writing.
These files, acquired directly from the publisher, have been untapped by scholars.
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The daughter of two prominent actors, Dame Daphne du Maurier DBE (1907-1989) grew up in London
surrounded by creative forces. Her family network, which included cartoonist George du Maurier (her
grandfather), and journalist William Comyns Beaumont (her great uncle), helped launch her literary career
– her earliest writing appeared in Bystander magazine when Beaumont was serving as editor-in-chief. Her
first novel, The Loving Spirit, was picked up by the prestigious publishing house Heinemann and published
in 1931. In the spring of 1937, du Maurier signed a three-book deal with Victor Gollancz and commenced
work on what is considered her masterpiece: Rebecca.
Written in under four months, Rebecca was an instant bestseller – the first print run of 20,000 copies sold
out almost immediately. The novel, about a young woman living in the shadow of her husband’s dead first
wife, is considered the gold standard of the Gothic romance genre and established du Maurier as one the
leading British authors of her time. Rebecca was awarded the U.S. National Book Award in 1938 and has
remained in print ever since, with paperback editions still selling roughly 4,000 copies a month. Du
Maurier adapted the novel for the stage in 1940 and it was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock that same
year, taking home the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1941.
Hitchcock also directed the film adaptations of du Maurier’s novel Jamaica Inn and her short story The
Birds, which first appeared in her 1952 collection of short fiction, The Apple Tree. One of du Maurier’s
later stories, Don’t Look Now, was made into a psychological thriller starring Donald Sutherland and Julie
Christie in 1973.
According to her biographer Margaret Forster, du Maurier felt freer in shorter formats to explore the darker
sides of her imagination. One of her earliest and lesser-known stories, “The Doll,” is about a young
woman’s obsession with a mechanical sex doll. Du Maurier hated being categorized as a “romantic
novelist,” especially since so few of her stories end happily or romantically. Forster wrote, “She satisfied
all the questionable criteria of popular fiction, and yet satisfied too the exacting requirements of ‘real
literature.’” More than anything, du Maurier wanted to be thought of as a serious writer along the lines of
Charlotte Brontë, whose prose style greatly influenced her own.
Du Maurier’s legacy extends beyond Gothic fiction – she also wrote plays, biographies (including one of
the elder Brontë brother, Branwell), and historical novels about her ancestors. Though she shied away from
fame and lived somewhat reclusively, especially after the death of her husband Lieutenant-General
Frederick Browning, neither her personal life nor her career were absent of controversy. Accusations of
plagiarism first arose when Rebecca was published in Brazil; many critics noted similarities to Carolina
Nabuco’s 1934 book A Sucessora. Nabuco and her editor alleged that key plot elements and entire sections
of dialogue had been copied and that before the film was released in Brazil, United Artists offered to
compensate Nabuco in exchange for signing a document stating that any similarities were coincidental.
Nabuco refused to sign. Du Maurier d
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