MYSELF WHEN YOUNG: The Shaping of a Writer

English novelist Daphne du Maurier (1907 - 1989) tells us that she kept a diary from age 12 in 1920 until she married in 1932. This tidbit she shares with readers in her Author's Note to MYSELF WHEN YOUNG: THE SHAPING OF A WRITER (1971). Her subtitle reveals the organizing principle of her partial autobiography: at what points in her long life Daphne du Maurier did or learned the things that made her one of the world's most widely read 20th Century authors. *** The text contains six chronologically arranged chapters and an index. From the Author's Note: "The following pages ... cover my thoughts, impression and actions from the age of three until I was twenty-five, after my first novel had been published" (ix). *** That first novel was THE LOVING SPIRIT (1931) and would be famously followed among other books by JULIUS (1933), JAMAICA INN (1936), her masterpiece REBECCA (1938), FRENCHMAN'S CREEK (1941), HUNGRY HILL (1943), THE KING'S GENERAL (1946), THE PARASITES (1949), MY COUSIN RACHEL (1951), THE APPLE TREE (short story collection including "The Birds" - 1952) and THE SCAPEGOAT (1957). *** Chapter by chapter, decade by decade, step by step, MYSELF WHEN YOUNG leads young Daphne du Maurier into the only work she ever did: writing. Let the first chapter "24, Cumberland Terrace" stand for all of her first 25 years in this respect. Her first memories begin at age three, living in London with her older sister Angela and new baby Jeannette in the house of "D" and "M," introduced as Daddy and Mummy, words "seldom used today" and never called Daddy and Mummy again. D was a famous actor and producer and M herself had been an actress till the birth of Baby. The family loved attending theater and visiting D backstage. *** "I saw why D liked to dress up and pretend to be someone else. I began to do it myself, and so did Angela and even Baby..." (12). A governess suggested that the children put on skits when their mother entertained her lady friends. Daphne always wondered what happened next following on the parts they acted from Shakespeare or in the children's stories read to them as they learned their alphabet. And why, why, always why did people in stories act as they did? *** Daphne was especially fond of summers spent away from London in the countryside. She would populate the local area with characters from HENRY V or THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS (15). It was doubt of the literal truth of stories about fairies or Father Christmas or even God that made young Daphne ask why did grown-ups act so wickedly and deliberately deceive gullible children? "If something was not true, why make it up in the first place? But then, here was the puzzle. Stories in books were not true. The person who wrote the book made them up. Somehow, that did not matter. ... People looked awkward when you kept asking why, why, why.." (16). *** In World War I death came to family members fighting in foreign fields. The du Mauriers moved out of London to escape Zeppelin raids. Angela told younger sister Daphne that in wartime it was expected of girls to "make eyes" at soldiers -- whatever that meant. And through all this Daphne kept discovering new writers, happily and creatively acting out with her two sisters new scenes, e.g. from famous beheadings in the Tower of London (Daphne was always the male executioner). She even wrote a novel in her young head called JOHN, IN THE WOOD OF THE WORLD. *** Year after year Daphne never ceased longing to be a boy, not a girl. As much as possible Daphne acted out boys' parts, created imaginary boy characters. For boys had all the adventures! By contrast Angela loved being a girl and acting parts of girls and women -- even beheaded or beheading queens! The sisters learned to talk like characters from books in front of friends, servants and family. Thus from THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR, young Daphne was known to mutter over lunch in the sisters' beloved kitchen before baffled staff, "The buscuits are full of weevils, the pork stinks" (25). *** MYSELF WHEN YOUNG can be read and reread with great pleasure for no end of reasons: tips on writing your own memoirs, glimpses into the achieving literary and artistic family of du Mauriers and their many friends who were writers, aristocrats, actors and doers and for much much more. This is a wonderful introduction of Daphne du Maurier, the great 20th Century re-inventor of Gothic writing. -OOO-