When was james whitcomb riley born

He read law for a while but took to the road with a traveling medicine man from whose wagon he learned to entertain the public with recitations in dialect. When he returned to Greenfield, he started a career in journalism, beginning with the local paper and expanding his horizons gradually. At one time he was local editor of the Anderson Democrat. The Indianapolis Journal' s invitation to join its staff was the door to success.

Riley published his dialect poems under the name "Benjamin F. Facebook Twitter Email. James Whitcomb Riley: Hoosier Poet. Dawn Mitchell IndyStar-Unknown. Share your feedback to help improve our site! His verse volume Armazindy was very poorly received. Riley gave his last tour in and spent his final years in Indianapolis writing patriotic poetry for public recitation on civic occasions with stirring titles such as America!

By this time, Riley was in poor health, weakened by years of heavy drinking. The Hoosier Poet died on July 23, of a stroke. In a final, unusual tribute, Riley lay in state for a day in the Indiana Statehouse, where thousands came to pay their respects. Not since Lincoln had a public personage received such a send-off. His is buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.

And, as a lasting tribute, the town of Greenfield holds a festival every year in Riley's honor. Every October the "Riley Days" festival opens with a flower parade in which local school children place flowers around the statue of Riley set on the courthouse lawn. Remembered as both a philanthropist and a poet laureate for the Hoosier state of Indiana, a writer with a distinctive pre-industrial folk ethos and an ear for the humble rhythms of the plain local dialect of the US Midwest, Riley remains to this day a poet of the people.

Cart 0. She tells the story of why you better mind your parents because "The gobble-uns'll git you ef you don't watch out! You can learn more about the history of the poem in the video below. Login using your IndyPL library card number.

His book Rhymes of Childhood was published in Today, over years later, you can easily find his book at the library or go to an online bookstore and find it for sale as a print book or an e-book. There are not very many books that are still printed from that long ago! He wrote Dunbar a letter of recommendation that helped get Dunbar's work published.

The Governor of Indiana allowed Riley to be laid in state at The Indiana Statehouse Rotunda so that people could come pay their respects. Until that time, only Abraham Lincoln had been honored in that way. Greenfield, IN, his birthplace, and Indianapolis, IN, his home for over 20 years, fought over where Riley should be buried. Indianapolis won.

He is buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in a tomb at the top of a hill, the highest point in Indianapolis.