A Child-world

James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916) was an American writer and poet, known as the "Hoosier Poet" and the "Children's Poet". He started his career in 1875 writing newspaper verse in Indiana dialect for the Indianapolis Journal. His verse tended to be humorous or sentimental, and of the approximately one-thousand poems that Riley published, over half are in dialect. Claiming that "simple sentiments that come from the heart" were the secret of his success. He satisfied the public with down-to-earth verse that was "heart high. " Although he was a bestselling author in the early 1900s and earned a steady income from royalties, he also travelled and gave public readings of his poetry. His favourite authors were Robert Burns and Charles Dickens, and he himself befriended bestselling Indiana authors such as Booth Tarkington, George Ade and Meredith Nicholson. Many of his works were illustrated by the popular illustrator Howard Chandler Christy. His works include: Afterwhiles (1887), Rhymes of Childhood (1890), The Flying Islands of The Night (1892), A Child- World (1897) and Riley Love-Lyrics (1899).

James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916) was an American poet, born in Greenfield, Indiana. At the age of 16 he left school and joined a group of itinerant sign painters. Subsequently he acted in a patent-medicine show and worked for a newspaper. From 1877 to 1885 he was a regular contributor of verse to the Indianapolis Journal under the pen name of Benj. F. Johnson, of Boone.

Some of the poems were collected in The Old Swimmin' Hole and 'Leven More Poems (1883), a volume that achieved great popularity. His best-known poems include Little Orphant Annie, The Raggedy Man, and When the Frost Is on the Punkin. Riley's popularity derived mainly from his quaint use of Hoosier dialect, his cheerful and whimsical sense of humor, and his intimate understanding of life in the rural Midwest. His other works include Rhymes of Childhood (1890) and Poems Here at Home (1893).