"Grace Metalious was a housewife with three kids running around with runny noses, living in a town (Gilmanton, N.H.) where she didn't belong, didn't fit in," producer Carol Baum told The Associated Press in a recent phone interview. "Meanwhile, unbeknownst to anybody, she was writing the sexiest novel in history, in her kitchen."

Metalious' novel of sex and scandal in a small New England town, based partly on Gilmanton, was published in the fall of 1956. Metalious never recovered from her sudden notoriety. Her marriage fell apart, her children were harassed and the author herself received threatening calls and letters. She became a heavy drinker and died of cirrhosis in 1964, at 39.