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Read by Lois Moore

James Whitcomb Riley (1849–1916) was an American writer and poet, born on a farm in Indiana. Over half of the approximately one thousand poems that Riley published are written in Hoosier dialect, as is this one.

The story of "Annie" was adopted by other artists and writers after Riley's death. One "Annie" is the popular Raggedy Ann doll. The name is a combination of two of Riley's poems, "Little Orphant Annie" and "The Raggedy Man." Another “Annie” adaptation is the long-running nationally syndicated comic strip “Little Orphan Annie” created by comic strip artist Harold Gray in 1924. The comic strip was adapted to the Broadway musical Annie in 1977 and subsequently to the musical film Annie in 1982, the made-for-television Annie in 1999, and the contemporary film version of the same name to be released in 2014. The soundtrack of the Broadway musical is also available at NYPL.

The full text of this poem is available online at Google books if you search for the title “Little Orphant Annie.” It is also available at this website dedicated to Riley. Other well-known poems written by Riley in Hoosier dialect are “When the Frost is on the Punkin” and “The Raggedy Man.” Most of Riley's work is available online at HathiTrust through the NYPL catalog.