James W. Riley // A Defective Santa Claus

Inscribed by Author.

First printing, December 1904.

Bound in decorated green cloth-covered boards signed "MA" monogram for Margaret Armstrong, with gilt title, border.

Pictures by C.M. Relya and Will Vawter

The author offered the book to Charles Holman Black for Christmas, in 1904, with the following inscriptions: “with Christmas greetings of his old fellow townsman” and “the music of the laughing lip, the luster of the eye”, which is from a Riley’s poem whose title is “The Days Gone By”: 

O the days gone by! O the days gone by!

The music of the laughing lip, the luster of the eye;

The childish faith in fairies, and Aladdin’s magic ring—

The simple, soul-reposing, glad belief in everything,—

When life was like a story, holding neither sob nor sigh,

In the golden olden glory of the days gone by.

Riley, often called the poet of the ‘common people’ or the ‘Hoosier poet” (he was born in Indiana and spent a very large part of his life in Indianapolis), was an American poet, writer and best-selling author who reached a very high level of notoriety. His poems reflected memories of childhood and nature.

Charles Holman Black, also originally from Indianapolis where his father was a music teacher, became a famous Salon singer in Paris.

The book is in a very good condition, with some sun fading at the spine and along extremities.