Hungry Hill.

First edition of this classic work. Octavo, original cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author in the year of publication on the front free endpaper, "To Tod with love from Daphne Easter 1943." The recipient, Maud Waddell worked as one of several governesses for the Du Maurier children and she is now regarded as having had an important formative influence on Daphne in particular. Waddell (or, "Tod" as she was nicknamed by the children after the Beatrix Potter character) was a strong, independently-minded woman who instilled in Du Maurier a passion for reading and encouraged her early writing. Writing in her memoirs, Du Maurier recounts some early influences from Waddell's recommendations: "Wilde filled my reading hours, but a more lasting impression was made by the stories of Katherine Mansfield, introduced to me by Tod who had a brother in New Zealand, and I felt instinctively that if I could only one day in the distant future write some sketch that might compare, however humbly, to hers, I need not despair..." Waddell later became a close friend and confidant, and would even serve as governess for Du Maurier's own children many years later" (Du Maurier, Myself When Young: The Shaping of a Writer). Near fine in a very good dust jacket. An exceptional association.