In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 13 May 1907
- Died
- 19 April 1989
- Birthplace
- London, England
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- Rebecca and a literary career closely connected with Cornwall
- First novel
- The Loving Spirit, 1931
- Major novel
- Rebecca, 1938
- Cornish home
- Menabilly, leased in 1943
- Later home
- Kilmarth, from 1969
Why this life matters
Her career shows how a popular novelist could move between imagined narratives, family research and local history. The separate records of her books, screen adaptations and archive also preserve the work of publishers, filmmakers and later custodians.
Timeline
Key moments
Birth
Born in London into a theatrical family.
First novel
The Loving Spirit was published.
Rebecca
The novel appeared before she leased Menabilly.
Menabilly
Took the lease of the Cornish house.
Kilmarth
Moved to Menabilly’s dower house.
Death
Died at home in Cornwall on 19 April.
Theatre and storytelling surrounded her childhood
Du Maurier was born in London in 1907, the daughter of actor-manager Gerald du Maurier and actress Muriel Beaumont. Her grandfather George had been a novelist and illustrator. These connections gave her access to a creative world, but did not determine the form her own career would take. Her education included governesses and time in France. The du Maurier website’s account especially stresses Maud Waddell, an enduring teacher and friend who encouraged her reading and listened to her developing interests.
Cornwall offered space to become a writer
The family’s purchase of Ferryside at Bodinnick brought du Maurier to the Fowey area. She stayed to write when the holiday household dispersed, drawing on encounters, local stories and the history of the river. The Loving Spirit appeared in 1931. Its development involved information about the Slade shipbuilding family and access to family papers, according to the author website’s account. Writing became a professional occupation rooted in sustained work, rather than simply a continuation of the theatrical sociability she had known as a child.
Rebecca belonged to a developing career
Du Maurier married Frederick Browning in 1932 and had three children. Jamaica Inn appeared in 1936 and Rebecca in 1938. Part of the latter was written while she was in Egypt with her husband; the website’s fuller account describes its completion after returning to England. She had already discovered Menabilly, but did not take its lease until 1943. The order matters: her imaginative use of a place preceded the period when she could live there and establish it as a working home.
Adaptation extended the books through other people’s work
The 1940 film of Rebecca made a separate creative object from the novel. The BFI record identifies Alfred Hitchcock as director, David O. Selznick as producer, and Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison among the screenplay credits. Du Maurier’s connection to cinema therefore involves source authorship alongside the work of other specialists. The archive preserves another side of this expanding career: manuscripts, typescripts, correspondence and research materials that can show development across projects, rather than only the finished works familiar from screens.
Biography and collaboration broadened her later writing
Her interests extended beyond novels. The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë appeared in 1960, while Castle Dor, published in 1962, involved completing an unfinished work by Arthur Quiller-Couch. Vanishing Cornwall followed in 1967, with photographs by her son Christian, known as Kits. These projects used research, inherited material and collaboration in different ways. Their variety makes the familiar description of du Maurier as a writer of suspense only part of the picture: she also investigated writers, family histories and the changing place in which she worked.
Sources for this section: [2]
A move did not end her working life
After Browning’s death in 1965, the future of the Menabilly lease became uncertain. Du Maurier moved to Kilmarth in 1969. Later publications included Rule Britannia in 1972 and autobiographical writing. She died in Cornwall on 19 April 1989. Exeter’s archive now provides an institutional home for papers deposited through her estate. Its existence connects a private working life with later research, while allowing readers to distinguish the author’s own documents from retrospective accounts and the many adaptations made from her writing.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Daphne du Maurier
- Did du Maurier live at Menabilly when Rebecca appeared?
- She knew the house before writing the novel, but took its lease in 1943, five years after publication.
- Did she write only novels?
- Her later work included biography, historical research, memoir and collaboration, alongside fiction.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Alfred Hitchcock
Follow the director credited for the 1940 film adaptation of Rebecca.
- Agatha Christie
Compare another long professional writing career that crossed publishing and screen adaptation.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. University of ExeterDaphne du Maurier: life and archive
Institutional biography and archive description were read, not the deposited manuscripts themselves.
- 2. Daphne du Maurier websiteDaphne du Maurier: biographical account
Selected PDF pages 1–3, 5 and 9–11 were read for career context. The brochure’s final page gives an erroneous 16 April 1987 death date; Exeter’s explicit 19 April 1989 is followed. No full novel was read.
- 3. University of Exeter Special CollectionsDaphne du Maurier: PenPals exhibition
- 4. British Film InstituteRebecca (1940): film and credit record
Film catalogue and credits only; no viewing of Rebecca is claimed.