Found after 90 years, the poems du Maurier wanted to keep secret
TWO never-before-seen poems by Daphne du Maurier have been found after being hidden inside a photo frame for more than 90 years.
The works are thought to have been written by the romantic novelist in the late 1920s when she was still an aspiring author, and then concealed by her.
Her first novel, The Loving Spirit, was published in 1931, with her big breakthrough Rebecca released seven years later in 1938.
The poems were on a sheet of A4 paper hidden inside a five-inch-high blue leather frame which contained a photo of du Maurier in a swimming costume.
They were uncovered by auctioneer Roddy Lloyd, who is selling an archive of du Maurier’s letters and photos, including snaps with the royals.
Du Maurier and her husband, Lieutenant General Sir Frederick ‘Boy’ Browning, were friends with the Queen and Prince Philip in the 1940s and 1950s, even enjoying yachting days out together.
The archive spans 40 years of correspondence between du Maurier and close friend Maureen Baker-Munton – whose son Kristen Baker-Munton, Lt Gen Browning’s godson, has decided to sell the collection.
One of the poems, called Song of the Happy Prostitute, is about a woman who resents the way her profession is frowned upon. In it, she writes: ‘Why do they picture me as tired and old, selling myself with sorrow, just to gain a few dull pence to shield me from the rain.’
The second, which does not have a title, is about loneliness, with the writer reflecting on her youth, and her ideas of ‘bliss’.
The poems are being sold by auctioneers Rowley’s, of Ely, Cambridgeshire, which expects them to fetch around £600.
Auctioneer Mr Lloyd said: ‘It was pure luck that I looked in the back of the frame. The pose of du Maurier reminded me of Rolls-Royce’s Spirit of Ecstasy and I opened it up to take the photo out – and the piece of paper was behind it. It’s always exciting when you come across something like this.
‘We think it dates from the 1920s when du Maurier was around 20. The poems are not juvenile ones of a child, nor the polished products of her later years. They show her working on her craft.
‘The Song of the Happy Prostitute is really interesting but not, perhaps, what one would expect from du Maurier, which might explain why it was hidden away, probably by du Maurier herself.’
Du Maurier’s novels include Jamaica Inn and Rebecca, which was turned into a film starring Laurence Olivier in 1940.
She spent much of her life in Cornwall, basing a number of her works there, and died at her home in the county in 1989 aged 81.
The sale takes place on April 27.