Grace Metalious, the author of one of the most notorious and best-selling novels of the 1950s, was born Marie Grace de Repentigny on September 8, 1924, in Manchester, New Hampshire. Populated by multiple ethnic groups, Grace's mother downplayed their French Canadian heritage due to the discrimination directed towards the group by "native" Yankees ...
Her 1956 novel Peyton Place became publishing's second blockbuster, following Gone with the Wind (1936).
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According to Jack Stillinger in his 1991 book "Multiple Authorship and the Myth of Solitary Genius," Metalious's manuscript for "Peyton Place" had to be heavily edited at Julian Messner & Co. by editorial chief Kathryn G. Messner and freelancer Leona Nevler (who had first spotted the manuscript) in order to make it publishable. This included extensive copy-editing and rewriting. The herculean effort, and the immense payoff when the novel sold millions of copies, led to a sea-change in the publishing industry, in which other authors with lesser talents than the first-timer Grace were "edited" so extensively as to raise questions of authorship. Stillinger writes that Jacqueline Susann's manuscripts were virtually illiterate and her novels were the product of editorial intervention even more extensive than had been the case with Metalious' "Peyton Place."
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Attended Central High School in Manchester, New Hampshire, the alma mater of actor Adam Sandler.
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She was essentially a small-town housewife who became famous nearly overnight, with fame introducing her to high and excessive living. Unable to replicate the success of "Peyton Place", she began to drink heavily and died of chronic alcoholism, nearly penniless despite the wealth generated by her most famous novel.
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In a TV interview she said that "Peyton Place" would be forgotten within 25 years.
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When she received the $125,000 screen rights check for "Peyton Place", she bought a bottle of milk at the local store with it and demanded the change.
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Every major fiction publisher in New York rejected "Peyton Place". The company that published it, Julian Messner & Co., did so because it was the only large publishing house run by a woman -- Kathryn G. Messner -- who had a personality similar to Grace's.
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Wrote most of "Peyton Place" while living in Manchester. She moved with her husband, George, to Gilmanton, New Hampshire, where she completed the book. The story about the girl who killed her molesting father was based on a true 1947 murder case in Gilmanton. The inclusion of this story made the people of that town think that the entire novel was based on them. This angered them so much that they fired George, who was the local high school prinicipal.
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Of French-Canadian decent.
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Peyton Place: The Next Generation
1985
TV Movie based on characters from the novel by
Murder in Peyton Place
1977
TV Movie novel
Peyton Place
1964-1969
TV Series based on the novel by - 514 episodes
Return to Peyton Place
1961
novel
Peyton Place
1957
from the novel by
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Ben Hecht Show
1958
TV Series
Herself - Author of Peyton Place
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Fifties
1997
TV Mini-Series documentary
Herself (interviewed by Joyce Davidson) (uncredited)
Known for movies
Peyton Place (1964-1969) as Writer
Peyton Place (1957) as Writer
Return to Peyton Place (1961) as Writer
Peyton Place: The Next Generation (1985) as Writer
$1.4 Million
