DU MAURIER DAPHNE: (1907-1989) British Author. An excellent T.L.S., Daphne, four pages, 8vo, Menabilly, Par, Cornwall, 3rd June 1959, to 'My dear' (Foy Quiller-Couch). Du Maurier announces 'This slightly shilling little response (no longer present) to my screed is not much help' and continues to explain 'I would have liked a bit of guidance from a publisher's point of view, as to whether he felt, as I do, that there was some straying aside in Book II, because it is helpful to have the opinion of an expert. (Which I presume he is). You could be biased by family pride and feeling, and I could be reading thought into it your father did not have. Still, he, Mr. Bozman no doubt will bide his time and await more from us. This M.S. is not a thing that should be hurried into production. Having waited so long it can wait longer' and further writes 'I also looked again at the M.S. Stray memories recur. Did you not as a child go on an errand to Lantyan and have a peculiar feeling "I have been here before" and come over queer? And did not your father also have this experience? I'm sure you told me this riding once through Golant. Who lived at Lantyan in those days? And what do you think is the point of the bird-man Tregentil at Penquite? Could he be taken from life? Your father must have intended him to take some part in the story, but in the chapters we have he rather fades from view, in fact he is interesting only in so far as he is a lovely target for Dr. Carfax's prescriptions. I adored the suggestion of Tregentil walking for his health, and watching rooks..This is genuine "father" vintage. But could echoes of your Doctor Cann have slipped into Carfax? It is always helpful to trace the "pegs" in a novel. When I say "pegs" it is my expression for characters - fictitious - in a tale who now and again become pegs on whom we hang remembrances of real people. The attributes of the living become mingled with the people we create. And then you project on to these "pegs" attributes that are imaginary, so that the living person, when encountered, is no longer the character he or she once was, but becomes invested with the fictitious attributes of the story. This can be vexing and sometimes a bit frightening! I would have loved to have discussed "pegging" with your father', continuing to explain 'For instance, Charlotte Bronte had a childhood and girlhood passion for the Duke of Wellington (as children today have for film stars) She wrote story after story in the Juvenilia about an imaginary son of the Duke of Wellington, who then became very Byronic (she got a passion for Byron) and finally this Duke of Zamorna so filled her imagination she could think of no one else. When she went to Brussels she pegged, in a sense, all these imaginary attributes on to Professor Heger, and finally Zamorna-Heger-Master-pupil relationship worked itself into a beautiful frenzy of imagination with Jane Eyre'. A letter of good literary content. About EX

Foy Quiller-Couch - daughter of British writer Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863-1944), and a life-long friend of Du Maurier. Indeed, Du Maurier was accompanied by Foy Quiller-Couch when she became inspired with the storyline for her novel Jamaica Inn. In 1930 the two ladies were staying at Jamaica Inn and went riding on Bodmin Moor. They became lost in bad weather conditions and apparently sheltered for some time in a derelict cottage on the moor but were eventually led back to Jamaica Inn by their horses.

The work which Du Maurier refers to in the present letter is Castle Dor, a historical novel based around the legend of Tristan and Iseult, but set in 19th century Cornwall. The main characters are a Breton onion seller, Amyot Trestane, and the newly wed Linnet Lewarne. Published in 1961, Du Maurier completed the unfinished manuscript of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch's last novel. Quiller-Couch's daughter, Foy, had given her blessing for Du Maurier to complete the work.