Poor Child

by Anne Parrish

Twelve-year-old Martin Doyle is the child of this story, a child you will hate and love and, above all, understand as though he were yourself. A background of poverty and sudden shocking tragedy had left their mark on Martin, tearing his heart and twisting his mind. Orphaned and a ward of charity when the story opens, he was sent to the country home of Mrs. de Rendon, a gentle, beautiful creature whose charm disguised her utter self-absorption. Here Martin found a peace that he had never known before, a terrible excitement in the new world he was seeing, in the flowers, in the woods and in the eternal sighing sound of the waterfall. Here too he realized an agonizing, bewildered desire to love and be loved. His need above all else was human affection. Desperately anxious to be allowed to stay with the de Rendons, Martin tried in a hundred ways to please his benefactors, but he was uncertain of his welcome and pitifully confused as to how he should behave. He found half-answers in the absent-minded affection of Mrs. de Rendon, in the reminiscences of Uncle James, and in the worldly knowledge of Costello, the chauffeur. But it was the help of gentle, wise old Anna that he at last managed to escape sheer terror and to save himself in a note of affirmation and hope. "Poor Child" is a novel that once read can never be forgotten.

4 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1945

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Three-time Newbery Honor winner, Anne Parrish came from a distinguished and artistic Philadelphia family. Her younger brother was author Dillwyn Parrish. Parrish trained at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, although she later chose a career in literature. In 1923 her first romantic novel, Pocketful of Poses, was published simultaneously to her children's book, Knee-High to a Grasshopper, illustrated by her brother Dillwyn. Their collaboration was followed by 'Lustres' (1924). In 1925 'The Perennial Bachelor' was the eighth best-selling book for the entire year according to the New York Times and won the Harper Prize from her publisher. Her 1928 bestseller 'All Kneeling' was made into the 1950 film Born to Be Bad, starring Joan Fontaine and Robert Ryan.

Throughout most of her life, Anne Parrish traveled extensively and on a trip to Switzerland, she and her brother purchased Le Paquis, a cottage in a meadow overlooking Lake Geneva not far from Lausanne, between Vevey and Chexbres.

In 1915, she married industrialist Charles Albert Corliss, residing in New York City. Her husband died in 1936. Two years later, she married poet and novelist Josiah Titzell (aka Frederick Lambeck). They made their home in Redding, Connecticut. After he died in 1943, she continued to live there for the rest of her life.