 Many other followed, including Maurice Thompson's "Hoosier Mosaics" (1875), and Lew Wallace's "" (1880).Indiana developed a reputation as the "American heartland" following several widely read novels beginning with Booth Tarkington's "The Gentleman from Indiana" (1899), Meredith Nicholson's The Hoosiers (1900), and Thompson's second famous novel, "Alice of Old Vincennes" (1900).James Whitcomb Riley, known as the "Hoosier Poet" and the most popular poet of his age, wrote hundreds of poems celebrating Hoosier themes, including "Little Orphant Annie".