Inside Peyton Place : The Life of Grace Metalious
Item
Title
Inside Peyton Place : The Life of Grace Metalious
Creator
Toth, Emily
Description
Biography of Manchester, New Hampshire author Grace Metalious. Famous for her novel "Peyton Place" and its various film adaptations. Emily Toth is also the biographer of novelist Kate Chopin.
From University Press of Mississippi: "The juicy biography of the scandalous novelist who lifted the lid off a New England town...Grace Metalious, an unpretentious housewife from the wrong side of the tracks, had written an explosive bestseller. From a ramshackle cottage in a small New England milltown, she zoomed to national stardom. She met movie stars, famous writers, and the hangers-on who gravitate to those who achieve sudden wealth. She partied with the glamorous; she traveled; always a generous friend, she entertained lavishly. It was a Cinderella dream. But it did not last....Grace refused to be confined by the fifties' notions of a woman's place. In her struggle to find herself, she lifted the lid off sex and violence, power and powerlessness, truth and hypocrisy, and became known as the Pandora in Blue Jeans. 'If I'm a lousy writer,' she said, 'then an awful lot of people have got lousy taste.'...Emily Toth has given us a complete and sympathetic portrait of Grace: the idealistic young scribbler, the partier, the sometimes reluctant wife and mother. Tracing the television shows, the films, the Peyton Place sequels and later novels, Toth shows Grace plagued by periods of self-doubt and loneliness, striving desperately and feeling pressured to create another 'hit.'"
From University Press of Mississippi: "The juicy biography of the scandalous novelist who lifted the lid off a New England town...Grace Metalious, an unpretentious housewife from the wrong side of the tracks, had written an explosive bestseller. From a ramshackle cottage in a small New England milltown, she zoomed to national stardom. She met movie stars, famous writers, and the hangers-on who gravitate to those who achieve sudden wealth. She partied with the glamorous; she traveled; always a generous friend, she entertained lavishly. It was a Cinderella dream. But it did not last....Grace refused to be confined by the fifties' notions of a woman's place. In her struggle to find herself, she lifted the lid off sex and violence, power and powerlessness, truth and hypocrisy, and became known as the Pandora in Blue Jeans. 'If I'm a lousy writer,' she said, 'then an awful lot of people have got lousy taste.'...Emily Toth has given us a complete and sympathetic portrait of Grace: the idealistic young scribbler, the partier, the sometimes reluctant wife and mother. Tracing the television shows, the films, the Peyton Place sequels and later novels, Toth shows Grace plagued by periods of self-doubt and loneliness, striving desperately and feeling pressured to create another 'hit.'"
Date
1981
Type
Book
Identifier
Coverage
20th century, New Hampshire