The Life of Riley | History Speaker Series

In an article for the popular magazine Collier’s, Pulitzer-prize winning Hoosier author Booth Tarkington once said of James Whitcomb Riley, “We are so naively ready to confuse the artist with his work.” During this program, Riley biographer Elizabeth J. Van Allen will share her journey of discovery regarding the complexities of the Hoosier poet’s personality, his rise to fame, his work, and his continuing importance and legacy.

Elizabeth J. Van Allen, PhD is managing editor of the digital Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, an official legacy project of the Indianapolis Bicentennial Commission. She is the author of James Whitcomb Riley: A Life (1999), coauthor of The Indiana University School of Medicine: A History (2021), and “‘Take what you find here and make it better and better’: Eli Lilly and Company, Philanthropy, and the Impact of the Discovery of Insulin,” in Greg Witkowski, ed., Hoosier Philanthropy: Understanding the Past, Planning the Future (2022). At the Kentucky Historical Society, she launched the NEH-funded Civil War Governors of Kentucky digital documentary edition. She is an experienced book, academic journal, and history museum exhibition editor.