Dillwyn Parrish

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. Dillwyn's father Thomas 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 illustrations for a 209-page children's novel written by his sister Anne, 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.

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