Anne Parrish

Anne Parrish (November 12 1888 - September 5 1957) was an American novelist and author of children's literature.

She was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Her father was Thomas Clarkson Parrish, who came from an artistic Philadelphia family. Her mother, Anne (née Lodge), had studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, becoming a respected portrait painter and a friend of Mary Cassatt in Paris. Anne Parrish was the elder sister of author Dillwyn Parrish and cousin to the artist Maxfield Parrish, who used them as models in some of his paintings. Thomas Parrish was successful in the Colorado mining business, but died when she was relatively young. Anne Lodge-Parrish then moved the family back to her hometown of Claymont, Delaware.

As a young woman, Anne Parrish trained at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women and studied under Thomas Eakins. However, she chose a career in literature, with her first romantic novel "Pocketful of Poses" appearing in 1923, the same year she had a children's book published, with her brother Dillwyn doing the illustrations. Their collaboration titled "Knee-High to a Grasshopper" was followed by another book for children in 1924, "Lustres". The following year was an extremely successful one for Anne; she won a Newbery Honor for "The Dream Coach", the third collaboration with her brother. That same year, her novel "The Perennial Bachelor" was the eighth best-selling book for the entire year according to the "New York Times" and won the Harper Prize from her publisher. An author of stories that mostly featured female protagonists, in 1927, she had another novel make it into the top ten list of bestselling novels in the United States. She repeated on the annual bestsellers list again in 1928 with "All Kneeling", that was made into the 1950 film "Born to Be Bad", starring Joan Fontaine and Robert Ryan.

Throughout most of her life, Anne Parrish traveled extensively and on a trip to Switzerland, she and her brother purchased "Le Paquis"," a cottage in a meadow overlooking Lake Geneva not far from Lausanne, between Vevey and Chexbres.

In 1915, she married industrialist Charles Albert Corliss, residing in the New York City area. Her husband died in 1936. Two years later, she married the poet and novelist Josiah Titzell (aka Frederick Lambeck). They made their home in Redding, Connecticut. After he died in 1943, she continued to live there for the rest of her life.

In the 1920s, Anne and her husband were browsing in a bookstore in Paris when she came upon a special children's book. It was a well-worn edition of "Jack Frost and Other Stories". She immediately showed it to her husband, remarking that the story had been one of her favorites as a little girl. Her husband opened the book and was stunned to read the inscription inside: "Anne Parrish, 209 N. Weber Street, Colorado Springs, Colorado."

A wealthy woman, Anne Parish assembled an art collection that included the 1873 Impressionist painting "Monet Painting in His Garden at Argenteuil" by Pierre-Auguste Renoir which she bequeathed to the Wadsworth Atheneum museum of art in Hartford, Connecticut.

Anne Parrish died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Danbury, Connecticut in 1957. She endowed the "Anne Parrish Titzell Professor of Neurology" chair at Cornell University, originally for research and treatment of mental and emotional disorders.

Bibliography

*"Pocketful of Poses" (1923)
*"Knee-High To A Grasshopper" (1923) (with Dillwyn Parrish)
*"Lustres" (1924) (with Dillwyn Parrish)
*"The Dream Coach" (1924) (with Dillwyn Parrish)
*"Semi-attached" (1924)
*"The Perennial Bachelor" (1925) - eighth bestselling book in the U.S. for the year
*"Tomorrow Morning" (1927) - eighth bestselling book in the U.S.
*"All Kneeling" (1928) - eighth bestselling book in the U.S.
*"The Methodist Faun" (1929)
*"Floating Island" (1930)
*"Loads of Love" (1932)
*"Sea Level (1934)
*"Golden Wedding" (1936)
*"Mr. Despondency's Daughter" (1938)
*"Pray For A Tomorrow" (1941)
*"Poor Child" (1945)
*"A Clouded Star" (1948)
*"The Story of Appleby Capple" (1950)
*"And Have Not Love" (1954)
*"The Lucky One" (1958)