I’m on vacation and when I’m not zipping along the highway headed to used bookstores (do I dare make a third trip to Book Barn this week?), I’ve been curled up on Mr Couch with books trying to savor them like the pound of Lindt almond truffles I bought at the Clinton Crossing Premium Outlets vs inhaling them whole like the box of Junior Mints on my nightstand. And as I re-read Barbara Seaman’s Lovely Me: The Life of Jacqueline Susann, Judy Oppenheimer’s Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson and Emily Toth’s Inside Peyton Place: The Life of Grace Metalious, all three controversial authors had something in common besides stirring up hornets nest of discontent and scandal. There was always a vicious rumor “She didn’t write that book/story…so and so did”.

Think this is one of my Crazy Literary Theories (TM)? Sadly, no. Even when Valley of the Dolls was selling so many copies an entire edition was printed with whatever paper was lying around the printing plant (believe it’s unofficially called the layer cake edition by collectors) people swore up and down her editor wrote the whole darn thing. Grace Metalious spent hours sitting at her typewriter, weaving bits of her own life and stories from small town New Hampshire to create Peyton Place (working title The Tree and the Blossom) but rumor had it her husband George or George and Grace’s dear friend Laurie Wilkins actually wrote the book. Some gossips claim Stanley Edgar Hyman wrote his wife Shirley Jackson’s chilling story The Lottery.

Now why were people so reluctant to give these three ladies credit for their creations? Was it the nature of the work itself? A look at humanity (The Lottery), pulling back the facade of a small town (Peyton Place), the raw gossip and sex (Valley of the Dolls)? The fact all three authors, married mothers, could shuck the bonds of house and home and devote themselves to writing..like a man? None of the three were known for their housekeeping and Jacqueline Susann adored living in a residential hotel and not having to cook or clean. There is one point in Lovely Me where the Susann refrigerator is pretty much bare beyond some bitters and suppositories. And Jacqueline’s main concern? That hubby Irving used one of her suppositories vs the almost empty refrigerator. Who needs to whip up a meal when there’s Room Service and amazing restaurants all around you? And at their primes Shirley, Grace and Jacqueline could most likely drink any man under the table. The then perception women just aren’t smart or clever enough t0 do anything besides cooking and cleaning and having babies? Granted only Shirley Jackson achieved a higher level of education and even that was a struggle but Jackson, Metalious and Susann, for all the challenges education brought were not dummies. And yes, you could argue Peyton Place and Valley of the Dolls needed heavy editing but you know what? Stephen King needs heavy editing and no one says anyone but him wrote his books.

How often does this “She didn’t write that book/story…so and so did” still occur today? Has anyone looked at a Tabitha King novel (she’s a terrific author who just happens to have passed her talent along to her son Joe Hill) and think “Oh Stephen/Joe/Owen must have written it?”. Does…ugghh and it hurts me to type this given how much I loathe this particular author…does J.K. Rowling have people thinking her husbands were responsible for the Harry Potter juggernaut? Then again it wasn’t just Shirley Jackson, Grace Metalious and Jacqueline Susann who had their authorship disputed. There are people out there today who firmly believe Branwell Bronte was the real author behind his three sisters masterpieces…