POET OF THE PEOPLE: An Evaluation of James Whitcomb Riley

Three essays discussing the contributions and position in American literature of the Hoosier poet. In the first essay Mr. Farrell searches the implications of the frontier exhilaration of Riley's boyhood with its promise of the future and Riley's own basic insecurity to explain the combination of nostalgic sentiment for a lost childhood, and a clicheed set of emotions in conventional form. Horace Gregory, in a delightful reminiscence of the Victorian age and a glimpse of Riley as a speaker -- a performance Mr. Gregory did not enjoy at a tender age -- follows further Riley's inclination to escape from a circumscribed life into a maudlin ""morning after"" sentimentality. Jeannette Covert Nolan discusses the worth of Riley's poems for children. An enlightening commentary for students and the Riley cult.