Kicking off Banned Books Week with Peyton Place

A controversial novel that should be rescued from the trash

Banned Books Week 2024 starts today. The annual event organized by the American Libraries Association highlights the dangers of censorship, especially in this fraught time. This year’s theme, “Freed Between the Lines,” aims to remind us how much is at stake when books, libraries, teachers, and librarians are targeted. It’s scary!

Before I move on to Grace and Peyton Place in this Sunday edition of Literary Ladies Lite, please join me this week on Literary Ladies Guide’s Facebook page. I’ll be presenting works by women writers of past whose works were banned and silenced.

When Peyton Place, the first novel by unknown 34-year-old Grace Metalious was published in 1956, critics from coast to coast found the book scandalous and for the most part trashed it. That, and numerous attempted banned didn't stop Americans from making it a blockbuster bestseller, the fastest selling book since 1939’s Gone with the Wind.

Canadians weren't as lucky — it was banned from the entire country for its first two years in print.

“Pandora in Blue Jeans”

While the public and critics focused on the book’s few (and not graphic) sex scenes, Grace, dubbed “Pandora in Blue Jeans” by the media, wrote it as a critique of societal hypocrisy. Soon after the novel captured the public imagination, the fine yet somewhat sanitized film version (1957) cemented Peyton Place's spot in American culture. The term “Peyton Place” became synonymous with scandal and intrigue.