Few imaginary cities are as well known as Peyton Place, and perhaps only Metropolis and Gotham City can rival it for success in a variety of media. The fictitious New England village has been the setting of two novels, two motion pictures, one prime time television series, one daytime drama, and two made-for-television movies—all this from a book written by a New Hampshire homemaker with little formal education.

(Clockwise from left) Ryan O'Neal, Mia Farrow, and Barbara Parkins of Peyton Place.

Grace Metalious published Peyton Place in 1956. It was the first novel for Metalious, who was thirty-two at the time, a homemaker with three children and a high school education. Metalious had lived in New Hampshire her entire life, and it is widely assumed that she based her novel on her experiences growing up. Peyton Place is set in the late 1930s and early 1940s...