Peyton Place
New York: Julian Messner Inc., 1956.
First edition, first printing. Signed by Grace Metalious on the front free endpaper, inscribed to former owner two weeks after publication. [vi], 372 pp. Bound in publisher's slick black cloth with silver spine lettering. Rubbing to cloth along edges, else Near Fine with former owner's name on front free endpaper above signature, in a Near Fine dust jacket with light edge wear, bright and unfaded, unclipped ($3.95). An attractive copy. The runaway bestseller about life in a New England town that inspired a series of hit films and TV shows, quite rare signed. The author was a lower middle class housewife in Durham, New Hampshire when she wrote the novel. Its immense success in popular culture (especially as as soap opera franchise, which would sustained over four decades) blindsided her and she drank herself to death at 39. Peyton Place remains of the bestselling books in American publishing history. And while the book has been less read in recent decades the title is still synonymous with scandal in popular culture.
Price: $5,000.00