Lady Browning, better known as Daphne du Maurier, was born on May 13, 1907. Du Maurier wrote plays and works of nonfiction, but she was best known for her romantic suspense fiction, including my own guilty-pleasure favorite, the novel Rebecca, about a young bride whose husband's first wife (the titular character) died under mysterious circumstances. The movie adaptation of Rebecca was directed by Alfred Hitchcock, whose famous movie The Birds was based on a short story by du Maurier. Hitchcock's Rebecca won the 1941 Academy Award for Best Picture. (In my opinion, the film was inferior to the novel, primarily because of a change in the story that had me yelling at the TV when I watched the movie the first time. The Hill Freeman Library has the video if you'd like to see for yourself).
Du Maurier was created a Dame of the British Empire in 1969. She died in 1989, and her ashes were scattered in her beloved Cornwall, which was the setting for many of her works, including Rebecca.
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