Herman Parish

Herman Parish (born 1953) is an American children's author best known for continuing the Amelia Bedelia series, the children's books about a literal-minded housekeeper that his aunt Peggy Parish began in 1963. He was born in Waco, Texas.

Peggy Parish wrote the original Amelia Bedelia books until her death in 1988. Her nephew revived the character in 1995 with Good Driving, Amelia Bedelia, illustrated by Lynn Sweat and published by Greenwillow Books, a HarperCollins imprint. Over the following years he added many more titles about the grown-up Amelia Bedelia, among them Bravo, Amelia Bedelia! (1997), Calling Doctor Amelia Bedelia (2002), Amelia Bedelia, Bookworm (2003) and Amelia Bedelia's Masterpiece (2007).

In 2009 he started a second strand about the heroine as a child, beginning with Amelia Bedelia's First Day of School. The Young Amelia Bedelia books include a run of chapter books, and illustrators on the series have included Lynn Sweat and Lynne Avril. The combined series continued until 2022, giving the character a publishing life of almost sixty years across the two Parish authors.

For collectors, the Herman Parish titles are mostly of interest to readers completing the Amelia Bedelia run rather than as scarce books. Good Driving, Amelia Bedelia (Greenwillow, 1995) is the natural starting point, as the first book after the series' revival; his grown-up Amelia Bedelia titles were issued by Greenwillow Books. No source we consulted identifies any of his titles as a notable rarity.