☞ Public‐domain character. Literary. First appearance, The Indianapolis Journal, 30 Sept. 1882.
Orphant Annie or Mary Alice Smith is an orphan girl who helps keep house for the kind family who have taken her in, and when work is done, tells chilling horror stories to her younger housemates. In her first appearance (“ Where Is Mary Alice Smith ? ”), she tells the children a grisly story of murder by decapitation and then later introduces them to her soldier friend Dave who is soon killed upon going off to war. In her third appearance (“ Elf‐Child ”), she tells them horror stories of misbehaving children who are abducted by goblins. On rare occasion, her name has been recorded as Orphant Anny, Orphant Allie and Orphan Ann. (Orphant is a dialectal spelling of orphaned.)
In 1918, the movie Little Orphant Annie indicates that she had previously told her scary stories to fellow orphans in an orphanage, depicts her unfortunate family situation before moving to her benefactors’ home and illustrates two of her stories.
In 1921, The Orphant Annie Story Book further expands Annie’s origin story, depicting in greater detail the winter day of her arrival at her benefactor family’s home. It goes to great lengths to cast a magic fairylike glow about her, describing her, for example, as “ a strange, mysterious, fancy‐filled little girl ” who “ seemed to come direct from the Land of Fairies ” and who “ seemed a creature … whose place was with Gnomes and Elves as they formed their Fairy Rings and danced in the shimmering moonlight. ” Rather than horror stories, she tells much less frightening stories about fairies, gnomes, magicians and anthropomorphic animals.
According to the 1922 book Sing a Song of Sleepy Head, Annie is one of the children, apparently adopted, of the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, and her siblings include Margery Daw, Miss Muffet, Topsy, Boy Blue, Jack Horner, Tom Tucker, Piper’s Tom, Cinderella and Baby Bunting. The family has recently become homeless due to the shoe’s having worn out but are all taken in Santa Claus’s sleigh to live with him in the Arctic Zone.
Public‐domain bibliography
“ Where Is Mary Alice Smith ?, ” by James Whitcomb Riley, The Indianapolis Journal, 30 Sept. 1882. Reprinted in The Boss Girl, 1885. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust)
“ Granny ” (poem), by James Whitcomb Riley, The Sunday Journal [The Indianapolis Journal] 10 May 1885. Little orphant Anny. (LC)
Reprinted in Afterwhiles, 1887. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust)
Reprinted as “ Granny’s Come to Our House, ” Rhymes of Childhood, 1890. Little Orphant Annie. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust)
“ The Elf‐Child, ” by James Whitcomb Riley, The Sunday Journal [The Indianapolis Journal], 15 Nov. 1885. (LC)
Reprinted as “ The Elf Child, ” The Boss Girl, 1885. Little Orphant Allie. (Internet Archive)
Reprinted as “ Little Orphant Annie, ” Old‐Fashioned Roses, 1889. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust)
“ Little Orphant Annie, ” musical setting, Franklin Square Song Collection : Two Hundred Favorite Songs and Hymns for Schools and Homes, Nursery and Fireside, vol. 6, selected by J. P. McCaskey, 1889. (HathiTrust)
“ The Gobble‐uns’ll Git You Ef You Don’t Watch Out !, ” music by Everard Jack Appleton, 1892.
“ Little Orphant Annie, ” music by Alicia Adélaide Needham (d. 1945), 1899.
Reprinted with added proem in The Orphant Annie Book, 1908. (Internet Archive)
“ Little Orphant Annie, ” music by B. Margaret Hoberg, 1911.
“ Little Orphant Annie, ” music by Clayton Thomas, 1913.
“ Little Orphant Annie, ” music by Fritz Krull, 1913.
“ Little Orphant Annie, ” music by Barclay Walker, 1916.
“ Little Orphant Annie, ” music by Ward‐Stephens, The Ward‐Stephens Musical Settings of Selected Poems …,1916. (HathiTrust)
“ An Indiana Hymn, ” The [Indianapolis] Sun, 23 Jan. 1890. Reprinted in Judge, vol. 17, no. 435, 15 Feb. 1890. A parody of “ The Elf‐Child ” in which Annie does not appear. (HathiTrust)
“ The shaggy dog was sitting near the open kennel door ” (poem), Judge, vol. 18, no. 466, 20 Sept. 1890. (First published in Washington Post ?) A parody of “ The Elf‐Child ” in which Annie does not appear. (HathiTrust)
Reprinted with the title “ Dog‐Wisdom, ” Good Roads, vol. 4, no. 3, Sept. 1893. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust)
Sunshine Annie, by Josephine Scribner Gates, 1910. (HathiTrust)
“ The Real ‘Orphant Annie’ : The Living Answer to James Whitcomb Riley’s ‘Where Is Mary Alice Smith’ Comes Out of Hiding, ” by Edmund H. Eitel, The Ladies’ Home Journal, vol. 32, no. 11, Nov. 1915. (HathiTrust)
“ James Whitcomb Riley : Written July 22, 1916, When the World Lost Its ‘Poet of Childhood’, ” by Edgar A. Guest, A Heap o’ Livin’, 1916. (First published in Detroit Free Press?) (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust)
“ The Gobble‐uns’ll Git You (A Hoosier Folk Playlette), ” by Hester Rosalyn Hoffman, The Smith College Monthly, vol. 24, no. 4, Feb. 1917. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust)
Home Folks (play), by Robert McLaughlin, (Oct.) 1918, staged as Home Again. (ibdb) (copyright registration, Internet Archive)
Published as Little Orphan Annie : A Comedy‐Drama in Three Acts, French’s Standard Library Edition, 1935, under separate copyright. HathiTrust claims this edition to be in the public domain even though its copyright was renewed 21 November 1963, and it must differ from the 1918 original at least insofar as having one fewer act. (HathiTrust) (copyright registration, Internet Archive) (copyright renewal, Internet Archive)
“ ‘Home Again,’ After J. Whitcomb Riley ” (review), The New York Times, vol. 68, no. 22,207, 12 Nov. 1918. (Internet Archive)
The Orphant Annie Story Book, by Johnny Gruelle, 1921. (HathiTrust)
Riley Readings with Living Pictures : A Novelty Entertainment, arr. Laura Christine Wegner, 1921. (Google Books)
“ Sing a Song of Sleepy Head : A Play for Grownups and Children, ” Sing a Song of Sleepy Head : Being Readable Rhymes for Curious Children, by James W. Foley, 1922. Orphan Annie, Orphan Ann. (HathiTrust)
“ Little Orphant Annie, ” Dictionary of Mythology Folklore and Symbols, pt. 2, by Gertrude Jobes, 1962. (HathiTrust)
Public‐domain filmography. Little Orphant Annie, Selig Polyscope Co., 1918.
Notes
The character is based on a real girl named Mary Alice Smith (1850–1924) who, similar to the character, lived in the author’s home and helped with housework.
The public‐domain characters Raggedy Ann and Orphan Annie were named after Orphant Annie in 1915 and 1924 respectively.
For Wikipedia
Riley had previously presented a fictionalized version of Mary Alice Smith in his short story “Where Is Mary Alice Smith?,” published in The Indianapolis Journal of 30 September 1882. In it, Mary Alice arrives at her benefactor family’s home and wastes no time in telling the children a grisly story of murder by decapitation and later introduces them to her soldier friend Dave who is soon killed upon going off to war. The plot of this short story was heavily incorporated into the 1918 movie adaptation as well as Johnny Gruelle’s 1921 storybook.
Ref.: Note in The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley in Which the Poems, Including a Number Heretofore Unpublished, Are Arranged in the Order in Which They Were Written, Together with Photographs, Bibliographic Notes, and a Life Sketch of the Author, ed. Edmund Henry Eitel, “biographical edition,” vol. 6, Indianapolis: Bobbs‐Merrill Co., 1913, 403, http://www.archive.org/stream/worksofjames06rilerich#page/402/mode/2up
Both “The Elf Child” and “Where Is Mary Alice Smith?” were printed in book form for the first time in 1885 in The Boss Girl.
Ref.: James Whitcomb Riley, The Boss Girl: A Christmas Story, and Other Sketches, Indianapolis: Bowen‐Merrill Co., 1885, 177–96, http://www.archive.org/stream/bossgirlchristma00rileiala#page/176/mode/2up
Change 1897 to 1889 and add reference.
Ref.: James Whitcomb Riley, “Little Orphant Annie,” Old‐Fashioned Roses, Indianapolis: Bowen‐Merrill Co., 1889, 111–13, http://www.archive.org/stream/oldfashionedrose00rileuoft#page/110/mode/2up
When reprinted in The Orphant Annie Book in 1908, the poem was given an additional, introductory verse (“Little Orphant Annie she knows riddles, rhymes and things! …”).
Ref.: James Whitcomb Riley, “Little Orphant Annie,” The Orphant Annie Book, Indianapolis: Bobbs‐Merrill Co., 1908, unpaginated, http://www.archive.org/stream/orphananniebook00rile#page/n11/mode/2up
In The Orphant Annie Story Book (1921), author Johnny Gruelle augments the character’s story and goes to great lengths to soften her image, portraying her as telling pleasant tales of fairies, gnomes and anthropomorphic animals rather than her characteristic horror stories.
Ref.: Johnny Gruelle, The Orphant Annie Story Book, Indianapolis: Bobbs‐Merrill Co., 1921, http://books.google.com/books?id=1-HQ0NgWNI4C