Ducks, Little Orphan Annie, and a once-famous but now obscure Indiana writer take the stage as today’s #stampoftheday, a 10-cent stamp, issued in 1940, featuring James Whitcomb Riley, a writer and poet who died on July 22, 1916.

Although the stamp was part of the series of 35 stamps honoring “Famous Americans” issued in 1940, I’d never heard of Riley before I saw the stamp. But probably was the most widely read – and commercially successfully – poet in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He published more than 50 books, most notably Rhymes of Childhood,” which was bought by millions of people. He was known for his uncomplicated, sentimental, and humorous writing, much of it written in what was supposed to be in dialect common to rural Indiana in the late 19th century. His children’s poems often contained morals and warnings for children, with messages telling them to care for the less fortunate of society.

One of Riley’s most “famous” poems was “Little Orphant [sic] Annie” which provided the name for the “Little Orphan Annie” comic strip, which made its debut in the New York Daily News in 1924 and, of course, provided the inspiration for the Broadway musical Annie, which opened in 1977 as well as three film versions of the musical, which were released in 1982, 1999, and 2014. And he also wrote one of my favorite aphorisms: “When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck.”

What else can I tell you about “the life of Riley” (which also was a popular radio show that may or may not have taken its name from his idyllic portrayals of Indiana youth)? Along with Lew Wallace, author of Ben-Hur (who also was from Indiana) helped create a Midwestern cultural identity and helped foster a literary community that produced works rivaling the established eastern literati. He had particularly strong influences on such poets as Hamlin Garland, William Allen White, and Edgar Lee Masters, as well as Paul Laurence Dunbar, a major African-American poet. (Masters, however, didn’t think much of Riley’s poetry).
He also was a famous performer, who did extensive poetry reading tours first in the Midwest, and then nationally. Sometimes he appeared alone and sometimes he appeared with other famous people, including Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) who, supposedly stopped performing in shows with Riley because Riley’s upbeat character upstaged Clemens more dour presence. Indeed, according to one review, Clemens “shriveled up into a bitter patch of melancholy in the fierce light of Mr. Riley’s humor.”
Though he stopped writing and performing, particularly after he had a stroke in 1911, he continued to be an amazingly prominent figure. He lent his well-known images to many businesses, included the “Hoosier Poet” brand of vegetables, which was a major trade-name in the Midwest. In 1912, the governor of Indiana instituted Riley Day on the poet’s birthday. Schools were required to teach Riley’s poems to their pupils, and banquet events were held in his honor around the state. The annual celebration continued in Indiana until 1968. After he died in 1916, his body lay in state at the Indiana Statehouse, an honor previously given only to Abraham Lincoln. More than 35,000 people filed past his bronze casket over the ten hours allotted for viewing and the line was still miles long when the doors closed.

Memorials to Riley included the James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis (now the Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health), Camp Riley for youth with disabilities, and the James Whitcomb Riley Museum Home in Indianapolis, which is the only late-Victorian home in Indiana that is open to the public.

For all that, his reputation quickly faded. Although Clemens along with William Dean Howells and Hamlin Garland, had praised Riley’s work and the idealism he expressed in his poetry, others, such as Edgar Lee Masters found Riley’s work to be superficial, claiming it lacked irony and that he had only a “narrow emotional range.” The latter view became increasingly common over the course of the 20th century. As David Galens, editor of many anthologies of poetry and literature for high school and college students noted in 2003, modern critics consider Riley to be a “minor poet, whose work-provincial, sentimental, and superficial though it may have been-nevertheless struck a chord with a mass audience in a time of enormous cultural change.”

But maybe, just maybe, view will change and the sun will come out for Riley’s reputation…tomorrow. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist)

Be well, stay safe, fight for justice, and work for peace.