Barbara's Comments "I was eleven when Peyton Place was first published. Back then, I had no idea that I would become a writer or that the work of Grace Metalious would have a profound effect on me. I reread Peyton Place for the first time as an adult back in 1991 and saw a whole new side to the book. Peyton Place is about far more than sex. It is about women standing up for themselves and finding a voice long before women's rights came into vogue.. Grace Metalious died at the age of 39, less than eight years after Peyton Place became the very first blockbuster bestseller. She drank herself to death, estranged from her family, feeling unhappy and unfulfilled.. Few know this fact, because Peyton Place the book was quickly eclipsed by the movie and the TV series. I wanted to refocus on Grace. So I created a town, a citizenry, and contemporary issues, and let fiction shed light on a very real woman and life's very real problems."