Grace Metalious

Grace Metalious (September 8, 1924 – February 25, 1964) was an American author known for her controversial novel Peyton Place, one of the best-selling works in publishing history. 2Early life Marie Grace DeRepentigny was born into poverty and a broken home in the mill town of Manchester, New Hampshire, writing from an early age. At Manchester Central High School she acted in school plays, and after graduation, she married George Metalious in a Catholic church in Manchester in 1943, thus becoming a housewife and mother. The couple lived in near squalor but she continued to write. With one child, the couple moved to Durham, New Hampshire, where George attended the University of New Hampshire. In Durham, Grace Metalious began writing seriously. When George graduated, he took a position as principal at a school in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. 2Peyton Place In the fall of 1954, at the age of 30, she began work on a manuscript about the dark secrets of a small New England town. The novel had the working title The Tree and the Blossom. By the spring of 1955, she had finished a first draf