biography
| name: |
Riley, James Whitcomb
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pseudonym Benjamin F Johnson, of Boone, nickname the Hoosier poet
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1849–1916)
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| biography:
| Poet, born in Greenfield, Indiana, USA. He left school at age 16 and worked as a house and sign painter (1870–1) and as a lecturer (1872–6). After working in his father's law office (1875–6), he moved to Indianapolis (1879) and became a journalist (1879–88). Many of his poems were first published in the Indianapolis Journal. He was a popular, sentimental poet, often using a Hoosier (Indiana) dialect, as in ‘Little Orphant Annie’ and ‘When the Frost is on the Punkin'’. |
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