Daphne du Maurier novel into French and sent it to a publisher in Paris, who she learned was also Ms. du Maurier's [publisher] only after "Rebecca" became a worldwide success. The novels have identical plots and even some identical episodes." Author Frank Baker believed that du Maurier had plagiarised his novel "The Birds" (1936) in her short story "The Birds" (1952). Du Maurier had been working as a reader for Baker's publisher Peter Davies at the time he submitted the book. When Hitchcock's "The Birds" was released in 1963, based on du Maurier's story, Baker considered, but was advised against, pursuing costly litigation
Daphne du Maurier affair with Gertrude Lawrence, as well as her attraction to Ellen Doubleday, the wife of her U.S. publisher Nelson Doubleday, were cited. Du Maurier stated in her memoirs that her father had wanted a son; being a tomboy, she wished to have been born a boy. "The Daphne du Maurier Companion", edited by Helen Taylor, includes Taylor's claims that du Maurier confessed to her in 1965 that she had had an incestuous relationship with her father and that he had been a violent alcoholic. In correspondence that her family released to biographer Margaret Forster, du Maurier explained to a trusted