Marketing Riley
Commercial ventures quickly recognized Riley's marketability. His picture
began to appear on stationary, can labels and menus. Rooms and restaurants were
named after him. Bobbs-Merrill, Riley's publisher, issued postcards and
broadsides printed with favorite poems. A. E. Little published sympathy
cards with "He is Just Away," the poem Riley wrote in memory of Civil War
General W. H. H. Terrell. His poetry was set to music. Packets of souvenir
cards containing photographs of places with Riley association were
produced, commemorative stamps issued and medallions struck. The man born
in a log cabin in Greenfield, Indiana was a national phenomenon and superstar.