Tyler Cowen is having a hard time coming up with his favorite things Indiana-related, as part of his continuing series where he lists his favorite things from his favorite places (though I’m flattered he mentions your humble Agitator as his favorite civil liberties crusader).

Allow me to step up to defend the culture of Hoosier-land.

Indiana literature: Cowen doesn’t care for Dresier or Vonnegut. And he hasn’t read The Magnificent Ambersons orAlice Adams, both by Pulitzer Prize-winning Hoosier author Booth Tarkington.

Guess we’ll have to turn to nonfiction, where we boast World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle. Or poetry, with nineteenth century scribe James Whitcomb Riley, native of my hometown, Greenfield (who once successfully faked an Edgar Allen Poe poem to prove the East Coast press’ bias against western authors.

A personal recommendation: There’s a terrific nonfiction book called A Lynching in the Heartland by Indiana University history professor James Madison. The book tells the history behind one of the more famous lynching photographs from the 1920s, which was, unfortunately, set in Indiana.

Indiana artists: The Hoosier Group was a pretty influential gang of early twentieth century American impressionists. T.C. Steele, Otto Stark, William Forsyth, and John Ottis Adams studied in Europe, then returned to Indiana to paint the Hoosier landscape. Some of their work here. More here.

Indiana Music: Radio staples Michael Jackson, John Mellencamp, “Diamond” David Lee Roth, and Axl Rose are all from Indiana. But my favorite Indiana pop artist is John Hiatt, from Broad Ripple. A terrific songwriter, Hiatt’s probably more famous for penning songs other people made famous. But his own music is wonderful, a bluesy, heartland roots-rock. He’s one of my favorite musicians, Hoosier or otherwise. For albums, start with Walk On, or the acoustic, back-porch vibe of Crossing Muddy Waters. If you want to cheat, try this greatest hits release. If you want to download a song or two to get a taste, try “Cry Love,” “Native Son,” or “Walk On” from Walk On, or “Feels Like Rain” or “Buffalo River Home” from the greatest hits album.

Two of last century’s best songwriters, Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael, were also from Indiana.

Indiana capitalists: Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, popcorn mogul Orville Reddenbacher, Colonel Sanders, and makeup queen turned philanthropist Madam C.J. Walker.

Indiana cinema: I’ll concede we’re lacking in this department. Cowen’s not a fan of either Hoosiers or Breaking Away. Parts of Close Encounters of the Third Kind were filmed in Indiana. There is of course Knute Rockne: All-American., and scenes from A League of Their Own were filmed in Indiana’s minor-league baseball stadiums. Cowen doesn’t like James Dean, but how about Steve McQueen?

Other Indiana Stuff: Wilbur Wright, Gus Grissom, David Letterman, Alfred Kinsey, and Eddie Rickenbacker. Infamy? We have suicide cult leader Jim Jones, bank robber John Dillinger and socialist Eugene V. Debbs (also, Jimmy Hoffa!).

Try the famous shrimp cocktail at St. Elmo’s Steakhouse in downtown Indianapolis, recently featured in Esquire. We also have the best quarterback in the NFL (yes, he was born in Louisiana but we claim him now), and the first team in league history to post back-to-back 9-0 starts (an odd statistic, yes, but until we win the Super Bowl, we’ll take what we can get).

I once wrote a brief explanation and history of the word “Hoosier,” which you can read here.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 17th, 2006 at 8:04 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.