Clara E. Laughlin

Reminiscences of James Whitcomb Riley Clara E. Laughlin

Contains numerous uncollected letters, some of which contain verse which appears only here. "My acquaintance with Mr. Riley began by correspondence. I began it. A ridiculously young editor, with soaring ambitions and the least money imaginable, I was gravely trying to conduct the literary departments of a Chicago weekly. I had a yearly allowance for my editorial purchases, and so long as I kept within that sum I was permitted to have whatever my eighteen-year-old tastes dictated and my purse would buy. "I decided to have a Riley poem. To this end I skimped and saved until I had amassed the staggering sum of twenty-five dollars, which without any preliminary negotiations, I sent to Mr. Riley with a polite note requesting twenty-five dollars worth of his very best poetry. I had no idea of the temerity of my request. That twenty-five-dollar check looked big enough to me to buy 'In Memoriam' or 'Paradise Lost.'"