Leona Nevler, 79; Book Editor Helped Get the Steamy Novel ‘Peyton Place’ Published

Leona Nevler, 79, a book editor who helped a first novel called “Peyton Place” make its way into print in 1956, died Dec. 10 of a pulmonary embolism after surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, said her daughter, Ellen J. Silberman.

At her death, Nevler was an editor at Berkley Books, an imprint of the Penguin Group. For much of her career, she was an executive at Fawcett Books. A native of Lynn, Mass., Nevler earned a bachelor’s in English from Boston University in 1947.

As a manuscript reader for Lippincott, Nevler received a draft of the novel from New Hampshire housewife Grace Metalious. Originally titled “The Tree and the Blossom,” it chronicled the sexual underside of a postcard-perfect New England town.

Nevler knew the book was too steamy for Lippincott and recommended it to Julian Messner, an independent publishing house in New York that snapped it up. Nevler also helped edit the book, which has sold more than 10 million copies and spawned movies and a TV series.

“Peyton Place” became part of the national lexicon as a catchphrase for suburban dysfunction.