Chappell was born on January 2, 1877, in
New London, Connecticut. After attending private schools, he studied at
Yale University, where he contributed to campus humor magazine
The Yale Record. After graduating in 1899, he went to
Paris to train in architecture at the
École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. The school then promoted classical and European medieval styles. After getting started in architecture, Chappell also wrote articles for
Vanity Fair. Encouraged by friends, he wrote several humorous books during the 1920s and early 1930s. These included a series of travel parodies under the pseudonym of Walter E. Traprock. He died on November 25, 1946, in
Bantam, Connecticut. ==Bibliography==