Daphne Du Maurier

Daphne Du Maurier, English novelist, was born in London. She is the granddaughter of the artist and novelist George Du Marurier, author of Trilby and Peter Ibbetson, and the daughter of Gerald Du Maurier, the noted actor, and of Muriel (Beaumont) Du Maurier. She writes: "I was brought up and educated at home, with my two sisters, and had six months in Paris when I was eighteen. I read extensively in French and English, and started composing poems and writing short stories during adolescence."

"My earliest literary influences were Katherine Mansfield, Mary Webb, and, curiously enough, Guy de Maupassant. Nowadays I care little for contemporary literature, but read for choice Jane Austen, Anthony Trollope, Robert Louis Stevenson, etc."

My hobbies are anything to do with the country - walking, gardening, bird-watching, sailing. My dislikes are town life, entertainments, parties, and large social gatherings. I have no feeling for any political party, but am convinced that human selfishness is the root of all the trouble in the world, and that no lasting contribution can be made towards universal peace unless every living man and woman stops thinking and working for personal success and profit. I am certain it is possible to live to a high standard and be happy and make other people happy, without adopting a censorious and preaching attitude to the rest of humanity. I believe in the principles of Moral Re-Armament, but am definitely not a member of the Oxford Group."

Besides her novels, Miss Du Maurier is the author of two charming books on her family - Gerald, a study of her father, and The Du Mauriers, which goes back three generations and is a delightful genre picture and has historical as well as literary interest. from Twentieth Century Authors, The H. W. Wilson Company