Peter Chapman, editor of both of Katie’s books, speaks about his road to The Taunton Press and the home-design books he has shaped

Peter Chapman worked as a book editor at The Taunton Press for 32 years, retiring from his full-time position as executive editor in May 2022. Peter has had a hand in most of the home design books that Taunton published since 1998, including two from our host, Katie (The New Small House and The New Cottage), as well as Sarah Susanka’s best-selling Not So Big House series.

In earlier lives before Taunton, Peter worked as a house painter (church steeples a specialty), crossword puzzle editor, educational test compiler, and apple picker. Somehow, he found his way into publishing in 1990. Along the way, Peter was granted an honorary membership of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Peter shares with Katie and Dawn some lively yarns about his indirect path to The Taunton Press and his early days there. One of the first books he edited for Taunton was Jim Tolpin’s The New Cottage Home: A Tour of Unique American Dwellings released in May 1998. (Katie has this one in her collection, of course, since it set the stage for her book The New Cottage: Inspiration for America's Favorite Home twenty years later.)

On the heels of successfully launching the Tolpin cottage book into the home-design arena, Peter also edited in 1998 what would become an enormous best-seller The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live by Sarah Susanka.

Sarah Susanka’s book became a surprise phenomenon and ushered in boom times at The Taunton Press and in the home-design book category. She was featured in main-stream print media and as a guest on Oprah and on the Charlie Rose Show.

Peter went on to edit many books that those in the residential architecture and design profession know well and hold dear. Books like The Cabin: Inspiration for the Classic American Getaway by Dale Mulfinger in 2001, The Distinctive Home: A Vision of Timeless Design by Jeremiah Eck in 2003, Patterns of Home: The Ten Essentials of Enduring Design by Max Jacobson, Murray Silverstein, and Barbara Winslow in 2005, and Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small-Scale Community in a Large-Scale World by Ross Chapin in 2011.

Peter also advocated to bring Larry Haun’s poignant memoir A Carpenter's Life as Told by Houses to Taunton and then edited it. In 2011, not long before Haun passed away, the book was released. The New York Times had this to say about Haun and his memoir.

Katie was fortunate to get a chance to work with Peter when he edited her 2015 best-selling book The New Small House and her 2018 book The New Cottage.

In 2006, when AIA Director Leslie J. Thomas was nominating Peter for honorary membership in the American Institute of Architects, she wrote, “Through his work as an editor for residential architecture books, Peter Chapman has single-handedly broken down the barrier between the public and great residential architecture.” So true, and we’re all the better for it. Thank you, Peter.