Early Artist
Photo of Will Vawter in his studio. Frank M. Hohenberger Collection, Lilly Library.
Samples of the Riley illustrations.
~ by Julia Pearson
Will Vawter, whose full name was John William Vawter, was born in Boone County, West Virginia on April 13, 1871. When he was six years old his family moved to Greenfield, Indiana. Born with talent and self-taught, Will attended the John Heron Art Institute in Indianapolis and the Art Students League in New York. His first job as an illustrator was for the Indianapolis Sentinel in 1891. His work soon started appearing in many other newspapers and magazines.
Vawter and his sister worked together on a children’ s book, The Rabbit’ s Ransom. He met poet James Whitcomb Riley, one of Greenfield’ s native sons, in 1893 and became his illustrator for the next thirty years. It was the Golden Age of Indiana Literature and Riley was recognized as the“ Hoosier Poet” or the“ Children’ s Poet.” The sparkle of local dialect and descriptions of Midwest life by Riley’ s verses are often visualized behind the eyes of readers with Vawter’ s sketches. Frequently using local residents as models, Vawter illustrated eleven volumes of Riley poems. Some of the titles with Vawter’ s illustrations are A Defective Santa Clause( 1904), Riley Songs O’ Cheer( 1905), Riley Songs of Summer( 1908), and Songs of Home( 1910).
40 Our Brown County • Nov./ Dec. 2015