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After Peyton Place was published, the whole image of the small town in America was forever changed.

The citizens of Gilmanton were outraged, certain that Grace Metalious was describing real people in the book and sure that she had brought shame and unwarranted notoriety to their town. The novel contains sex, suicide, abortion, murder and a subsequent trial, and rape. Peyton Place is the story of a small New England town that, beneath its calm exterior, is filled with scandal and dark secrets. Metalious became famous as the housewife who wrote a bestseller she was referred to as "Pandora in Blue Jeans," the simple small-town woman who opened the box of sins.

Eventually, 20 million copies were sold in hardcover, along with another 12 million Dell paperbacks. The book was a best seller by the fall of 1956, and Metalious became a wealthy woman overnight. It was while she was living in Gilmanton that Julian Messner, a New York publisher, agreed to publish Peyton Place. By now the family had three children, all dependent upon his meager salary. It was here that Metalious began writing seriously, neglecting both her house and, eventually, three children, despite the condemnation of her neighbors.Īfter graduation George was offered a position as a principal at a school in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. A few years later, with one child already, the Metalious's moved to Durham, New Hampshire, where George attended the University of New Hampshire. In high school Grace met George Metalious, who was neither Catholic nor of French-Canadian background and, thus, highly unacceptable to her family. These activities seemed to offer her an escape from a generally unhappy family.

Grace also enjoyed acting in school plays. Many of her stories featured a romantic heroine who gets her hero in the end. Metalious, however, discovered the pleasure of writing early. At that time divorce was unusual in a French Canadian family, and Grace and her sisters felt stigmatized. Metalious's father deserted his wife and three daughters when Grace was 11 years old. She was born Marie Grace DeRepentigny in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1924. Grace Metalious is best known as the author of the infamous Peyton Place, a book that caused a social upheaval even before it was published in 1956.