The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-10-01

Have you ever heard of the poet
Edyrn?
Do you recall the merry meters OF
Jay Whit?
Would you recognize the poetry of
John c. Walker
Are you familiar with the verse of
Benjamin F. Johnson of Boone?
No? That's strange. Yet the in
. slant you hear it, you know the poetry
of James Whitcomb Riley; and Edyrn,
and Jay Whit, and John C. Walker,
and Benjamin F. Johnson of Boone,
even Jamesy O'Reilly, and J. w. Riley,
and James w. Riley-all of them are
that 1t was too commonplace for
them have been James Whitcomb
Riley at one stage or another of his
remarkable literary career
This disclosure was made only very
recently and was the result of the
search which has been instituted in
an effort to find the lost poems of
the great Hoosier in order that the
hrst absolutely complete edition of his
works In both prose and poetry might
be published. The investigation has
led the compilers of the work into al
most every state in the Union, but
now they believe that they have I'M
earthed all of the famous poets COM
positions still in existence.
GUO NCt TuDIiSncQ.
In all, more than two hundred poems
ere found which had never been pub
lished in any of the editions of Riley
~ poetry which have been given the pub
lie. The poems are in the main from
the earlier days of the poets career
but some are compositions of more
recent date, which, for some reason,
he had never given over for publica-
ton.
When the investigation was begun
all that the compilers had to go on
was some information which tended to
show that Riley had begun to write
fo- publication about 1870, and that
his first poems appeared in the old
Greenfield Und) Commercial Search
as they would, however, the editors
and compilers could find no trace of
any verse which bore the name of
James Whitcomb Riley; the files of
the Commercial contained no SO much
as a couplet which seemed to have
any connection with the poet.
The editors appealed to the poet
himself. and finally, they dragged the
truth from him.
'1dylls of the King" and in the poem,
"Geraint and Enid" he had come
across the character called "Edyrn."
That was a romantic name! There
was one to whom the Fates had been
kind! The name fascinated the boy.
He liked to say it, to roll it around
on his tongue! So what was more
natural, than when he began to write
poetry and sought to have his early
verse published, he should select the
pen name of "Edyrn," the finest name
he had ever heard. Certainly his good
townspeople in the little Indiana ham,
let might hesitate to read poems from
the pen of the most mischievous lad
in the community. But a poem from
the pen of "Edyrn," they could not
afford to ferego the pleasure Of read
ing such lines!
And then it was the day of
pseudonyms. Samuel L. Clemens was !
Mark Twain" Eugene Ware had cho-
sen to be known as Iron Quill" Rob-
ert J. Burdette was called the Hawk
eye Man," Edgar Wilson Nye was ia
military known as Bill" The real
men of letters just had to have a non
de plume.
Substitutes stay Whit"
In 1872 the poet dispensed with
"Edyrn," substituting the signature |
Jay Whit" Justifably proud of his |
success, the young poet desired to be-
come a bit closer identified with his
work. Yet, he still feared the criti- !
cism of his Greenfield friends and did
not want his authorship to become too
apparent.
His second pen name gave a clew to |
the real identity of the poet but it did
not reveal it completely. Many of the |
so-called Jay Whit" poems were sent |
to Mr. Riley's brother, John Riley, who |
had moved to indianapolis, and |
through him, they found their way |
into the columns of the indianapolis |
Mirror, the indianapolis Herald and |
other indianapolis newspapers of that
day which have long since suspended |
publication.
About 1875 number of poems made
their appearance in different Indiana !
papers and bore the signature of -.
w. Riley" One in particular attract
ed widespread attention. 1t was
little masterpiece entitled IF I Knew
What Poets Know" Before long the |
name of 81. w Riley" became we'll
known throughout the state OF Indiana
but Riley notwithstanding decided
that it was TOGO commonplace for
him to continue to use it as a pen
name.
Too Many Rileys.
Every one in those days was relig-
ious. And every other lad in the land
was christened after the great John
Wesley. Indiana was full of Metho-
dists and Rileys-they flourished in
goodly numbers toe throughout the
commonwealth and the Rileys, for the
most part. were Methodists There
were J. w. Rileys galore in Indiana
as a consequence Hence, if he would
maintain any individuality, Riley
found that he must select another
nom-de-plume.
A stroke of the good fortune in 1878
for three Indiana newspapers, The In
dianapolis Herald. The Kokomo Trib-
une, and The Indianapolis Journal.
Finding himself fairly overwhelmed
with work, Riley had no time to go
searching for a new pen name, so in