Derby History Quiz
Archives of all quizzes
The mythical Traprock Expedition
Our thanks to
Rick Dunne for submitting this quiz and the following
information:
Walter
E. Traprock is the pseudonym of New York Architect George
Shepard Chappell. Traprock was the “author” and subject of three
popular travel parodies written between 1921 and 1931. According
to the books, Traprock’s estate was located in Derby, on the
banks of the Housatonic River.
In the 1920's, the New York
architect George S Chappell wrote a trilogy of books under the
pseudonym "Dr. Walter E Traprock". These books were written in
the first person about (his) various adventures.
They were satires of the popular
travel books of the 1920s, the South Seas adventure, the Arctic
travel, etc. Chappell was a friend of publisher George Putnam
[GP Putnam's Sons publishing house] and the Traprock books were
thought to be the brainchild of Putnam, who recruited Chappell
into writing them. Putnam is more widely known as the husband of
Amelia Earhart. The books consistently refer to Traprock as
living in Derby, Connecticut. (Chappell & Putnam graduated from
Yale in 1899. We know that Mrs. Kellogg knew Earhart and that
Mr. Kellogg was also an architect and lived in New York at the
same time. Could that be the connection?)
Chappell's first book, published in
1921, was Cruise of the Kawa (Wanderings in the South Seas),
then in 1922, followed by My Northern Exposure (The Kawa at the
Pole) and the third and last was Sarah of the Sahara in 1925. A
fourth Traprock book, Dr Traprock's Memory Book (or Aged in the
Wood) was written in 1931 with Chappell using his own name,
'interviewing' the retired explorer at his estate in Derby on
the banks of the Housatonic River.
If you would like to read The
Cruise of the Kawa, you can read it online or download it from
Project Gutenberg for free by
clicking here.
|
Correct
answers were received from:
Randy Ritter, Fred Grant, Ann Searles, Mary Lou Boroski, Nick from
Terryville, Millie from Ansonia, Joe Romano, Mary Seuss, Marc
J. Garofalo, Joe Pinto, Joe Melewski, Dawn Berry, Raymond M. Petrillo, John
Kowarik, Jack Skelding, Ruth E. Barnett, Eileen Krugel, Tom Francione, Rick
Schreiner, Stephanie Anne D'Onofrio, Jack Vagnini, Carolyn Nowakowski
Kovach, Cyndi Poppa, Mark Jackson, and John Whalen.
To see our earlier quizzes and learn more about Derby's unique
history, click here.
Back to
Derby Home page |