Daphne du Maurier the press." Shortly after "Rebecca" was published in Brazil, critic Álvaro Lins () and other readers pointed out many resemblances to the 1934 book, "A Sucessora" ("The Successor"), by Brazilian writer Carolina Nabuco. According to Nabuco and her editor, not only the main plot, but also situations and entire dialogues had been copied. Du Maurier denied having copied Nabuco's book, as did her publisher, pointing out that the plot elements used in "Rebecca" said to have been plagiarized were quite common. The controversy was examined in a 6 November 2002 article in "The New York Times". The article said that
Gerald du Maurier Camber's Ladies" (1932), a German doctor in "I Was a Spy" (1933), the emperor's valet in "Catherine the Great" (1934) and, soon before his final illness, Wessensee in the Michael Balcon version of "Jew Süss" (1934). Du Maurier was a regular cigarette smoker, and the du Maurier brand was named after him as a paid endorsement deal (he did not smoke them himself), to which he agreed to help pay taxes owed. He served as President of the Actors' Orphanage Fund (now the Actors' Charitable Trust) from 1914 to his death, when he was succeeded by Noël Coward. He died