Herman S. Parish III is an American children's writer, the current author of ''

Amelia Bedelia Amelia Bedelia is the protagonist and title character of a series of American children's books that were written by Peggy Parish from 1963 until her death in 1988, and by her nephew, Herman, beginning in 1995. They have been illustrated by W ...

'' children's books and the nephew of the series creator

Peggy Parish Margaret Cecile "Peggy" Parish (July 14, 1927 – November 19, 1988) was an American writer known best for the children's book series and fictional character Amelia Bedelia. Parish was born in Manning, South Carolina attended the University of ...

Life and career

Parish was born in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. His father served in the

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

. He was in the fourth grade when the first

book was written. Having grown up with his aunt’s tales of Amelia Bedelia’s humorous misadventures, Herman decided to carry on the legacy after his aunt’s death in 1988. He did not wish to entrust the future of the series into the hands of a children’s author outside of the family. Since Peggy had the summers off from teaching, she was able to stay with the Parish family for extended periods of time, allowing Herman and Peggy to develop a close relationship. More importantly, this gave Herman a chance to keenly observe Peggy during her writing processes, gaining great insight into the road ahead of him. To carry on the essence of the series, Herman thoroughly examined his aunt’s work and did his best to capture what exactly made the character of

such a hit. In an interview with ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

'', Herman noted he didn't want to simply copy his aunt's style of "Amelia being given a list of things to do, but then being left alone to interpret it literally and run amuck," but chose to "have her have face-to-face misunderstandings instead." Having editor

Susan Hirschman Susan Hirschman was the founder of children's publisher Greenwillow Books. Career Hirschman was born in Manhattan, and lived there for her entire career. She was inspired to enter publishing during high school when she heard a talk by Jennie L ...

and illustrator Lynn Sweat in common with his aunt, helped make the transition. Herman is a resident of

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

, and travels to libraries and elementary schools across the United States, speaking to young children. The importance of revising and editing is often stressed during these lectures. He has presented to students in more than 22 states. In May 2014, Parish collapsed at his home, suffering a

hemorrhagic stroke A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...

. He spent 17 days in the

intensive care unit 220px, Intensive care unit An intensive care unit (ICU), also known as an intensive therapy unit or intensive treatment unit (ITU) or critical care unit (CCU), is a special department of a hospital or health care facility that provides intensiv ...

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital The Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) is an American 965-bed hospital with campuses in New Brunswick (Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital New Brunswick), and Somerville, New Jersey ( Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somer ...

New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat, seat of government of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

Publishers.'' ''Gatefold books (*) are published by HarperFestival.''

References

External links

Amelia Bedelia Books Official Website

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parish, Herman Living people American children's writers People from Princeton, New Jersey Writers from New Jersey Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people)