Vancouver Sun (20/Apr/1989) - Popular novelist, author of Rebecca, dead at age 81
Details
- article: Popular novelist, author of Rebecca, dead at age 81
- newspaper: Vancouver Sun (20/Apr/1989)
- keywords: Alfred Hitchcock, Daphne du Maurier, Gerald du Maurier, Jamaica Inn (1939), Joan Fontaine, Laurence Olivier, Rebecca (1940), The Birds (1963)
Article
Popular novelist, author of Rebecca, dead at age 81
Dame Daphne du Maurier, who became one of the century's most popular writers by mixing romance and the supernatural in Rebecca and other novels, died Wednesday at age 81.
Monty Baker-Munton, a family friend, trustee and executor, said he did not know the cause of death. "For the last fortnight (two weeks) she'd just been in a gentle decline," he said.
The author, who also wrote such popular classics as Frenchman's Creek and The Birds, died in her sleep at her home in the village of Par, in Cornwall, southwest England, he said in an interview.
Baker-Munton said that at the novelist's own request her funeral would be private.
Widowed in 1965, she had for many years lived a secluded life on the Cornish coast that inspired the settings for many of her works.
She remained fit enough until a few weeks ago to take her dog for daily walks at the beach.
Friendly and kind to her neighbors, she shunned publicity.
"I can't say I really like people," du Maurier once remarked. "Perhaps that's why I always preferred to create my own instead of mixing with real ones."
She spent the better part of her life producing best-sellers in Menabilly, the family mansion on the Cornish coast.
Many of her novels were filmed, including The Birds, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. But she herself waited until the age of 64 before consenting to face a television interviewer.
Born in London on May 13, 1907, Daphne du Maurier was one of three daughters of the renowned actor Sir Gerald du Maurier.
She was educated by private tutors in Paris and at age 21 published her first articles and short stories. Her publisher told her: "Write a novel," so she produced The Loving Spirit in 1931.
The novel captivated a young British army major and led to a storybook courtship.
The officer, Frederick Browning, resolved to meet the young woman and journeyed to Par to find her. They met in 1932, married a few months later, and in the same year she published her second novel, I'll Never Be Young Again. She was just 25.
Jamaica Inn followed in 1936, and then came Rebecca, her most famous work. Published in 1938, it became an instant hit, was turned into a film by Hitchcock starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, and was reprinted 39 times.
