Peyton Place (novel)

The novel sold 60,000 copies within the first ten days of its release, and it remained on The New York Times best seller list for 59 weeks.

20th Century-Fox adapted it as a movie in 1957, and Metalious wrote a follow-up novel that was published in 1959, titled Return to Peyton Place, which became a film in 1961 using the same name.

Grace Metalious and her husband George first considered Potter Place, the name of a real community near Andover, New Hampshire.

Selena Cross was based on Barbara Roberts, a 20-year-old girl from the village of Gilmanton Ironworks, who murdered her father Sylvester after years of sexual abuse and buried his body under a sheep pen.

Nellie and Lucas later have a child together: Joey, who lives with the couple and Selena in "the shacks", a poor section of town being targeted for redevelopment.

Moreover, when Allison finally gets a look inside the shack where Selena lives, she is horrified by the squalor and the violence she sees in Lucas.

"[4]When Selena turns 14 years old, Lucas begins to abuse her, impregnating her and leaving local doctor Matthew Swain in a troublesome situation in which he decides to perform an abortion.

Other storylines follow Leslie Harrington, owner of the local woolen mills, whose son Rodney dies in a car accident, as well as newspaper man Seth Buswell.