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Cary Club minutes, 1934-1939

Page 87

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Writings of James Whitcomb Riley. Mrs. Blinks did this most thoroughly and entertainingly. Riley is known as the "Hosier Poet" and is often referred to as "the Burns of America," a part of the people; his own people. He was born in Greenfield, Ind. Oct 7, 1853 and though he never married, was a master lover of children, whose spirit he [divined?] so intimately. All the sorrows, all the happiness and joys of existence have been expressed in his poems and count the thousands have laughed and cried over them. His verse occupies an unique niche in American literature. Not all his poems were in Hosier dialect. He wrote many beautiful selections in pure English. He died in 1916. His former home on Lackerbie Street, maintained as a memorial is invited yearly by thousands. Mrs. Blinks read a number of the best known of Riley's poems,
 
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