Today in Indiana History

October 7 , 2008

One of the state’s most popular authors,James Whitcomb Riley, was born in Greenfield on this day in 1849. Riley, the author of such well-known poems as "Little Orphant Annie" and "When the Frost Is on the Punkin" was the son of a successful lawyer and politician, while he himself was only a so-so student. For several years he roamed the state as a sign painter. Later he worked at newspapers in his hometown, in Anderson, and in Indianapolis. His first book of poems, "'The Old Swimmin'-Hole' and 'Leven More Poems," was published in 1883, and soon Riley was nationally famous. For many years he was a tenant in a home on Lockerbie Street in Indianapolis; both it and his boyhood home today operate as museums. Riley died in 1916.