Peasant Village Library

Recommended reading for people interested in Peter Hunt

The Search for Peter Hunt

    Now available! The only book written about Cape Cod's charismatic artist, The Search for Peter Hunt (The Local History Company) is now available! Author Lynn C. Van Dine, creator of this web site, spent almost a decade researching the art, the life and the legends of Peter Hunt. And Peter Hunt has something to say about that. In fact, he has a lot to say.
    His story is told in a historical fiction that is engaging, occasionally poignant and sometimes funny -- just like Peter Hunt.
As a bonus, Peter Hunt's instructions on creating his peasant designs are included in the book.
    To order The Search for Peter Hunt, contact the publisher, The Local History Company.

** Peter Hunt's Workbook

   Precursor to his How-to-do-it Book, Peter Hunt's Workbook, published in 1945 by Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, was an expansion on his brochure for DuPont Nemours, called Transformagic, which promoted the company's paints for refurbishing old furniture. Although not as detailed as the How-to-do-it Book, the Workbook offers solid instruction on creating peasant decorations.

** Transformagic

    The beginning of Peter Hunt's national fame came from his instruction in this DuPont Nemours brochure, Transformagic: How to Transform Old Furniture, initially released in 1942, and reprinted several times over the next few years. Magazines like Life, House Beautiful and Mademoiselle used seized on the concept and featured Hunt in multi-page photo spreads, complete with "before" and "after" shots of redecorated pieces.

** Peter Hunt's Cape Cod Cookbook

    Although his contemporaries say he was a terrible cook, Peter Hunt pulled together a marvelous mélange of recipes from all over Cape Cod for his Cape Cod Cookbook: A Cape Cod Treasury of Favorite Recipes Illustrated by the Author, published by Hawthorn Books Inc. in 1954.

If you have any questions, ideas or suggestions for the Library or Peter Hunt & Peasant Village, contact us at Info@peasantvillage.com

** Recommended Reading list
shares art and history resources
To learn more about Peter Hunt, his art and his world, explore the Recommended Reading list.

** The NEWSROOM shares articles
on what people are saying about the book
See reviews and features on "the Search for Peter Hunt" that have appeared in the Midwest Book Review, the Cape Cod Chronicle, the Provincetown Banner and more!

** Peter Hunt's How-to-do-it Book

   Perhaps his best-known published work, Peter Hunt's How-to-do-it Book, published by Prentice-Hall Inc. in 1952 compiled his stories about coming to Cape Cod along with in-depth instruction on recreating his folk art style on furniture, knick-knacks and odd bits. Now out of print.

** Paintbox Summer

    Betty Cavanna, who summered for many years in Chatham on Cape Cod, was best known for the many books she wrote for girls and teenagers. Paintbox Summer, illustrated by Peter Hunt, is set in Peasant Village and tells the story of a teenage artist who works there as Hunt's apprentice. Of course, Peter is featured throughout as a minor character. The book was published in 1949 by Westminster Press.

** Cape Cod Compass

    Peter Hunt designed the cover of the 1964 edition of the Cape Cod Compass, picturing the Cape as a giant fish. Inside the issue is a black and white picture of the artist at his Peacock Alley shop in Orleans. In the 1963 issue of the Compass, Hunt contributed an essay with his illustrations, called "Winter is Best."

** Priscilla Hauser Presents
the Peter Hunt Workbook

    Famed decorative artist Priscilla Hauser published the Workbook with her own clarifications of the peasant painting instructions and wonderful images of his shop and home in Orleans. She published Priscilla Hauser Presents the Peter Hunt Workbook in 1975. Hauser also published The Painting World of Nancy Whorf (pictured below), about Hunt's lead apprentice and her subsequent work, in 1976.