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. She was born Marie Grace DeRepentigny in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1924. Metalious's father deserted his wife and three daughters when Grace was 11 years old. At that time divorce was unusual in a French Canadian family, and Grace and her sisters felt stigmatized. Metalious, however, discovered the pleasure of writing early. Many of her stories featured a romantic heroine who gets her hero in the end. Grace also enjoyed acting in school plays. These activities seemed to offer her an escape from a generally unhappy family.

In high school Grace met George Metalious, who was neither Catholic nor of French-Canadian background and, thus, highly unacceptable to her family. Nevertheless, they married in 1943. A few years later, with one child...