American poet James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916), often called the "People's Laureate" or the "Hoosier Poet," established a reputation for dialect poetry designed for recitation and easy reading. James Whitcomb Riley was born on Oct. 7, 1849, in...

With nearly a million copies in circulation, Capt. James Riley's narrative of his two months in captivity in the Sahara Desert, first published in 1817, was one of the best-selling books of the nineteenth century. Its original popularity can probably...

All day long through the little town of Greenfield moved dusty men on horseback, oxen pulling large covered wagons like tents on wheels, and mules with heavy packs strapped to their backs. And all day long in the schoolhouse cabin, little James Whitcomb...

Near East Renaissance Partners' bid is defined by "onlys": It's the only bid to feature an arts center, the only one to have a community development corporation as a partner, the only one to ask the city to issue public bonds to help fund...

In the following essay, Revell explicates the ways in which Riley's pastoral poems, particularly the “Johnson of Boone” poems, follow and adapt the generic formula of the pastoral.

In the following essay, Bush explains Mark Twain's theory of performance, comments on the novelist's respect for Riley's performed poetry, and posits that both authors saw the absence of any critical space between poet and persona as responsible for the success of Riley's sentimental poems.

In the following interview, local color writer Garland discusses Riley's work with the poet and gives a vivid sense of the performative elements of both Riley's poetry and his artistic persona.