Du Maurier, Daphne (1938) ‘Rebecca’, UK first edition with signed letter

Daphne du Maurier (1938) ‘Rebecca‘, UK first edition first printing, published by Gollancz. Together with a signed letter from 1940 responding to a brief questionnaire of some scholarly value and a few elaborating lines in du Maurier’s contemporary hand.

Condition of the book and dust jacket: The book is in very good condition. One contemporary previous owner’s inscription in beautiful hand using black ink on the ffep. Internally clean without any bookplates, stamps nor annotations. No foxing. The boards are very good with the lettering on the front and spine clearly legible with a trifle rubbing but not as extensive as most copies. The rear board’s top corner in bumped and displays a little wear as shown. The original and unrestored yellow dust jacket shows the correct 8/6 net price on the spine. No noteworthy browning or fading to the spine as often found. Slight edge wear to top of spine and folds as shown. A beautiful specimen of a scarce dust jacket.

The letter: Responding to a young student’s questionnaire in July 1940 du Maurier answers that she did not have any immaginary companions as a child but real ones in form of her sisters. She started creative writing at the age of 14. Her signature in full is at the bottom on the first page. On the reverse Daphne elaborates in her hand that she did imagine people together with her sisters when playing together and when she played those games on her own as well. She acknowledges that from the age of 7/8 until 16/17 she was constantly living in an imaginary world playing as various characters and even as a schoolboy. She signs this as ‘Daphne’ once more. An interesting contemporary letter and quite revealing that in 1940 at the height of WWII du Maurier  took the time to answer a young female helping with research for her senior thesis. Quite fitting content given the gothic nature of du Maurier’s novels. Accompanied with the original envelope stamped 18 August 1940.

Rebecca was published in August 1938 and has never been out of print (with sales in the millions). It is one of the most loved British novels as evidenced by various ‘best of’ lists. It has been adapted as a film several times, notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940 and as recently as the 2020 Netflix production. One of the defining novels of the 20th century which cannot be missed by the serious literature collector.