Peggy Parish

Who was Peggy Parish?

Peggy Parish of Manning, South Carolina, was the author of the children's story series Amelia Bedelia. The series was continued, after her sudden death from an aneurysm, by her nephew Herman Parish. Peggy attended the University of South Carolina and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English.

Parish, an avid reader of many books, caused an international sensation with her famous series of young readers' picture-story books about Amelia Bedelia, gaining immediate renown with her premiere work, "Amelia Bedelia." Amelia Bedelia is a "Simple John" character, based on cracker-barrel punning humour and folklore. She works as a household cook and occasional servant. She uses no recipes, but, by intuitively combining a little bit of this and a little bit of that, her cakes and cookies and meals are always delicious! Fortunately she is such a good cook that her employers can not fire her, despite the disastrous way she hilariously misinterprets her employers' instructions: prune the shrubs, scale and ice the fish, file the letters, run over the tablecloth with an iron, shorten these dresses, serve coffee with porridge, heat a can of soup, ... Amelia Bedelia is extremely literal-minded, and her author's word-play, and Amelia Bedelia's fundamental goodness, despite her child-like simplicity, appeals to youngsters who are beginning to see and enjoy more than one meaning in a word or a phrase. Parish became a household name by the time her final work, "Amelia Bedelia's Family Album", was published before her death. Herman honored Peggy's life in his book, Good Driving, Amelia Bedelia, by writing in its dedication: "For Peggy Parish, the real Amelia."