Portrait of James Whitcomb Riley

James Whitcomb Riley

American poet from Indianapolis

Lived
1849–1916
Also writes as
Benjamin P. Johnson of Boone

Updated September 2026

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About James Whitcomb Riley

James Whitcomb Riley was an American writer, poet, and best-selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the "Hoosier Poet" and "Childrens' Poet" for his dialect works and his poetry for children. His poems tend to be humorous or sentimental. Of the approximately 1,000 poems Riley wrote, the majority are in dialect. His famous works include "Little Orphant Annie" and "The Raggedy Man".

Biography from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

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Sources: book lists and dates from Wikidata and Open Library, ratings from Open Library readers, free texts from Project Gutenberg. Last updated September 2026.