James Whitcomb Riley // Farm-Rhymes

Previously sold.

Bound in illustrated green cloth boards with gilt title, border. 
With Country Pictures by William Will Vawter. 
 
The author offered the book to Charles Holman Black for Christmas, in 1904, with the inscription “With whoops and hoorahs of his old Hoosier fellow citizen” and the drawing of a sun around “Indianapolis, Indiana USA. Christmas of 1904.” 
 
Riley then went on and wrote a short poem. 
 
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), Riley 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.