"Little Orphant Annie" is an 1885 poem written by James Whitcomb Riley and published by the Bowen-Merrill Company. First titled "The Elf Child", the name was changed by Riley to "Little Orphant Allie" at its third printing; however, a typecasting error during printing renamed the poem to its current form. Known as the "Hoosier poet", Riley wrote the rhymes in nineteenth-century Hoosier dialect. As one of his most well known poems, it served as the inspiration for the character Little Orphan Annie upon whom was based a comic strip, plays, radio programs, television shows, and movies.
“An’ the Gobble-uns ’ll git you
Ef you don’t watch out.”
Little Orphant Annie.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
