DU MAURIER DAPHNE: (1907-1989)DU MAURIER DAPHNE: (1907-1989)

DU MAURIER DAPHNE: (1907-1989)DU MAURIER DAPHNE: (1907-1989)

‘Years later I did meet Larry……and by then he had progressed to finer parts……
than Maxim de Winter!’

 

DU MAURIER DAPHNE: (1907-1989) English novelist. An interesting T.L.S., Daphne, two pages, 8vo, Kilmarth, Par, Cornwall, 1^st & 2^nd October 1977, to Jesse L. Lasky Jr. Du Maurier thanks her correspondent for their letter and recounts his visit to Cannon Hall and their exchange of letters fifty years previously, continuing 'As for your book “Love Scene”, I hope it will prove a counter-blast to the book on Vivian (sic) Leigh recently published, which doesn't seem to have been very true to fact, but largely surmise. Though I admit I have not read it. As to Larry Olivier, the film of Rebecca was entirely made in Hollywood, and I had not met him - it was made over there during the war - so I never knew anything about the film until I saw it myself, in 1940 or '41, but thought it very good. Years later I did meet Larry, and Vivian (sic), but rather briefly in New York, and by then he had progressed to finer parts in the theatre and in films than Maxim de Winter!' Du Maurier concludes her letter the following day, explaining 'Life is exhausting at the moment as I am busy training my two West Highland puppies, and they don't always respond! It's like being the mother of twins but without clean nappies to put on them. Never mind, we survive'. Accompanied by the original envelope. A letter of both good content and association. EX

 

Jesse L. Lasky Jr. (1910-1988) American screenwriter, novelist, playwright and poet, son of film producer Jesse Lasky Sr. Author of Love Scene: The Story of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.

 

Rebecca, one of Du Maurier's most successful novels, was adapted into a film in 1940, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Laurence Olivier as Maxim de Winter, and Joan Fontaine as the second Mrs. de Winter.