James Whitcomb Riley, the Hoosier Poet
Near Indianapolis, Indiana
On the highest hill in Indianapolis, in Crown Hill Cemetery, stands a classical monument to James Whitcomb Riley, beloved in his day as the Hoosier Poet. Born in Greenfield, Indiana, in eighteen forty-nine, Riley wrote in homespun dialect and tender verse, and the public adored him. His poems Little Orphant Annie and The Raggedy Man became part of American childhood, later inspiring the Raggedy Ann dolls and echoing through the Broadway musical Annie.
After he died in nineteen sixteen, the Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis was named in his honor. So a poet who wrote for the young still, more than a century on, helps care for them.
