Dillwyn Parrish
Encyclopedia
George Dillwyn Parrish (July 25, 1894 — August 6, 1941) was an American
writer
, illustrator
, and painter
.
Born in Colorado Springs, Colorado
, Parrish was usually known by his middle name "Dillwyn", or "Tim" or "Timmy" by those close to him. He was the son of Thomas Parrish, who came from an artistic Philadelphia family, and Anne Lodge, who had studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, becoming a respected portrait painter
, and becoming a friend of Mary Cassatt
in Paris
. Dillwyn Parrish was the younger brother of author Anne Parrish
; they were cousins to the artist Maxfield Parrish
who used them as models in some of his paintings. His father, Thomas Parrish, gained success in the Colorado mining
business, but died when Dillwyn was relatively young. His mother moved the family back to her hometown of Claymont, Delaware
.
Dillwyn Parrish studied art in Philadelphia, then attended Harvard University
, where he made the acquaintance of Conrad Aiken
and E. E. Cummings
. During World War I
he volunteered to drive ambulances for the American Field Service in France
, but after being diagnosed with severe malnutrition he was sent back to the U.S. to recover. A year later he was drafted into the United States Army
and served in a military hospital. While still in his twenties, medical problems began to plague him, exacerbated by the fact that he was a heavy cigarette smoker
.
In 1923, Dillwyn Parrish did the illustration
s for a children's book
with his sister Anne titled Knee-High to a Grasshopper. They followed this publication with two more books for children, publishing Lustres in 1924 and then earning a Newbery Honor in 1925 for their third collaboration, The Dream Coach. On a trip to Switzerland
the two purchased "Le Paquis," a cottage in a meadow overlooking Lake Geneva
not far from Lausanne
between Vevey
and Chexbres
.
For a time, Dillwyn Parrish tutored the children of a wealthy family, and eventually fell in love with Gertrude "Gigi" McElray
, the family's youngest girl. In 1926, Harper & Bros published his novel Smith Everlasting, and between then and 1934 three more of his books came out. In 1927 he married the fifteen-year-old "Gigi", and for their honeymoon the couple started out on motorcycle
s (see photo) from his home in Claymont, Delaware, intending to drive across the country to California
. However, his new bride was severely injured in an accident in the Southwestern United States
and, once she was able to travel, they completed the remainder of the journey via train
. In 1929, they moved permanently to California, where a few years later, the beautiful Gigi Parrish was signed to a contract with Samuel Goldwyn's motion picture company and in 1934 she became one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars
.
Dillwyn and Gigi Parrish rented a beach house in Laguna Beach
, next door to Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher
and her husband Alfred Fisher, with whom they became friends. Dillwyn Parrish fell in love with Mary Fisher, and after encouraging her writing, helped get her culinary essays published in 1937 under the title Serve it Forth. Their relationship came at a point when his marriage was already in difficulty, and eventually both couples divorced. He married Mary Fisher in 1938, and they lived at his place in Switzerland until 1939, when war broke out again in Europe
. In January 1940 they bought land with a pinewood cabin in the San Jacinto Mountains
near Hemet, California
. However, Parrish had already contracted Buerger's disease
, which resulted in the amputation of a leg. During this time, he returned to painting, creating a series of works dominated by images of angels of death that formed part of an exhibition organized by the University of California, Los Angeles
.
However, his health rapidly deteriorated and he lived in constant pain. Faced with the necessity of further limb amputations, on August 6, 1941 he shot himself in the countryside near his home in the San Jacinto Mountains. He was cremated, his ashes buried under an overhanging rock on the mountain rim overlooking their home. He was 47 years old.
Parrish's death impelled his widow into writing more books, mostly culinary. Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me: Journals and Stories 1933–1941 (1993) recounted her time with Dillwyn Parrish.
Bibliography:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
, and painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
.
Born in Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...
, Parrish was usually known by his middle name "Dillwyn", or "Tim" or "Timmy" by those close to him. He was the son of Thomas Parrish, who came from an artistic Philadelphia family, and Anne Lodge, who had studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, becoming a respected portrait painter
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
, and becoming a friend of Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt
Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Dillwyn Parrish was the younger brother of author Anne Parrish
Anne Parrish
Anne Parrish was an American novelist and author of children's literature. She was a three-time winner of the Newbery Honor....
; they were cousins to the artist Maxfield Parrish
Maxfield Parrish
Maxfield Parrish was an American painter and illustrator active in the first half of the twentieth century. He is known for his distinctive saturated hues and idealized neo-classical imagery.-Life:...
who used them as models in some of his paintings. His father, Thomas Parrish, gained success in the Colorado mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
business, but died when Dillwyn was relatively young. His mother moved the family back to her hometown of Claymont, Delaware
Claymont, Delaware
Claymont is a census-designated place in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. The population was 9,220 at the 2000 census.-History:...
.
Dillwyn Parrish studied art in Philadelphia, then attended Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, where he made the acquaintance of Conrad Aiken
Conrad Aiken
Conrad Potter Aiken was an American novelist and poet, whose work includes poetry, short stories, novels, a play and an autobiography.-Early years:...
and E. E. Cummings
E. E. Cummings
Edward Estlin Cummings , popularly known as E. E. Cummings, with the abbreviated form of his name often written by others in lowercase letters as e.e. cummings , was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright...
. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
he volunteered to drive ambulances for the American Field Service in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, but after being diagnosed with severe malnutrition he was sent back to the U.S. to recover. A year later he was drafted into the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
and served in a military hospital. While still in his twenties, medical problems began to plague him, exacerbated by the fact that he was a heavy cigarette smoker
Tobacco smoking
Tobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the resulting smoke is inhaled. The practice may have begun as early as 5000–3000 BCE. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 16th century where it followed common trade routes...
.
In 1923, Dillwyn Parrish did the illustration
Illustration
An illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
s for a children's book
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
with his sister Anne titled Knee-High to a Grasshopper. They followed this publication with two more books for children, publishing Lustres in 1924 and then earning a Newbery Honor in 1925 for their third collaboration, The Dream Coach. On a trip to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
the two purchased "Le Paquis," a cottage in a meadow overlooking Lake Geneva
Lake Geneva
Lake Geneva or Lake Léman is a lake in Switzerland and France. It is one of the largest lakes in Western Europe. 59.53 % of it comes under the jurisdiction of Switzerland , and 40.47 % under France...
not far from Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
between Vevey
Vevey
Vevey is a town in Switzerland in the canton Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Geneva, near Lausanne.It was the seat of the district of the same name until 2006, and is now part of the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut District...
and Chexbres
Chexbres
Chexbres is a municipality in the Swiss canton Vaud, located in the district of Lavaux. Chexbres is a wine-growing village and enjoys a good selection of local vintages...
.
For a time, Dillwyn Parrish tutored the children of a wealthy family, and eventually fell in love with Gertrude "Gigi" McElray
Gigi Parrish
Gigi Parrish was an American film actress.Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts as Katherine Gertrude McElroy, and raised in Hartford, Connecticut. Her mother died in 1918, and McElroy and her siblings were put up for adoption. After adoption by a wealthy family, she and her step-siblings were tutored...
, the family's youngest girl. In 1926, Harper & Bros published his novel Smith Everlasting, and between then and 1934 three more of his books came out. In 1927 he married the fifteen-year-old "Gigi", and for their honeymoon the couple started out on motorcycle
Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...
s (see photo) from his home in Claymont, Delaware, intending to drive across the country to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. However, his new bride was severely injured in an accident in the Southwestern United States
Southwestern United States
The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...
and, once she was able to travel, they completed the remainder of the journey via train
Train
A train is a connected series of vehicles for rail transport that move along a track to transport cargo or passengers from one place to another place. The track usually consists of two rails, but might also be a monorail or maglev guideway.Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate...
. In 1929, they moved permanently to California, where a few years later, the beautiful Gigi Parrish was signed to a contract with Samuel Goldwyn's motion picture company and in 1934 she became one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars
WAMPAS Baby Stars
The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States which honored thirteen young women each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. They were selected from 1922 to 1934, and annual...
.
Dillwyn and Gigi Parrish rented a beach house in Laguna Beach
Laguna Beach, California
Laguna Beach is a seaside resort city and artist community located in southern Orange County, California, United States, approximately southwest of the county seat of Santa Ana...
, next door to Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher
M. F. K. Fisher
Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher was a preeminent American food writer. She was also a founder of the Napa Valley Wine Library. She wrote some 27 books, including a translation of The Physiology of Taste by Brillat-Savarin. Two volumes of her journals and correspondence came out shortly before her...
and her husband Alfred Fisher, with whom they became friends. Dillwyn Parrish fell in love with Mary Fisher, and after encouraging her writing, helped get her culinary essays published in 1937 under the title Serve it Forth. Their relationship came at a point when his marriage was already in difficulty, and eventually both couples divorced. He married Mary Fisher in 1938, and they lived at his place in Switzerland until 1939, when war broke out again in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. In January 1940 they bought land with a pinewood cabin in the San Jacinto Mountains
San Jacinto Mountains
The San Jacinto Mountains are a mountain range east of Los Angeles in southern California in the United States. The mountains are named for Saint Hyacinth . The Pacific Crest Trail runs along the spine of the range.The range extends for approximately from the San Bernardino Mountains southeast to...
near Hemet, California
Hemet, California
Hemet is a city in the San Jacinto Valley in Riverside County, California, United States. It covers a total area of , about half of the valley, which it shares with the neighboring city of San Jacinto. The population was 78,657 at the 2010 census....
. However, Parrish had already contracted Buerger's disease
Buerger's disease
Thromboangiitis obliterans is a recurring progressive inflammation and thrombosis of small and medium arteries and veins of the hands and feet...
, which resulted in the amputation of a leg. During this time, he returned to painting, creating a series of works dominated by images of angels of death that formed part of an exhibition organized by the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
.
However, his health rapidly deteriorated and he lived in constant pain. Faced with the necessity of further limb amputations, on August 6, 1941 he shot himself in the countryside near his home in the San Jacinto Mountains. He was cremated, his ashes buried under an overhanging rock on the mountain rim overlooking their home. He was 47 years old.
Parrish's death impelled his widow into writing more books, mostly culinary. Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me: Journals and Stories 1933–1941 (1993) recounted her time with Dillwyn Parrish.
Bibliography:
- Knee-High To A Grasshopper (1923) (with Anne Parrish)
- Lustres (1924) (with Anne Parrish)
- The Dream Coach (1924) (with Anne Parrish)
- Smith Everlasting (1926)
- Gray Sheep (1927)
- Praise The Lord! (1932)
- Hung For A Song (1934)