james whitcomb riley (october 7, 1849 – july 22, 1916) was an american writer, poet, and best-selling author. during his lifetime he was known as the "hoosier poet" and "children's poet" for his dialect works and his children's poetry. his poems tend to be humorous or sentimental. of the approximately 1,000 poems riley wrote, the majority are in dialect. his famous works include "little orphant annie" and "the raggedy man".