Daphne du Maurier: The Years Before
"I long for something so terribly and I don’t know what it is."
Dame Daphne du Maurier was an English novelist, short story writer, playwright and biographer. She first achieved fame with a candid biography of her father, Gerald: A Portrait, in 1934, but achieved international success with her 1938 gothic novel Rebecca. In a career that spanned six decades, she wrote seventeen novels, two plays, short stories, and biographical works. Several of her books and short fiction were adapted into films, including Frenchman’s Creek, My Cousin Rachel, Jamaica Inn, and, most famously, The Birds, Don’t Look Now and Rebecca. She was married in 1932, had three children and spent most of her adult life living in Cornwall, where she died in 1989. In this biography, I will examine the early years of her life, including her struggles with her sexual identity and early writing.