[2] In his youth Riggs was an acquaintance of the artist L. Bancel LaFarge, and came to know Thornton Wilder, Monty Woolley and other notable creative people while at Yale.
[4] See America First received a poor critical reception when it opened on Broadway in March 1916 following previews in New Haven, Connecticut and Rochester, New York.
The Catholic Bishop of Hartford, John Joseph Nilan, forbade Riggs to celebrate Sunday Mass on campus, in deference to local priests, who opposed the creation of a religious centre outside parish structures.
[1] Students would meet at Riggs' home; his lectures were initially unpopular, perhaps due to his deliberate style of speaking and a refusal to pander to public tastes.
Riggs also wrote and published a seven-page pamphlet attempting to correct what he saw as an inaccurate and misleading description of the Origins of Christianity given by Professor Edwin Goodenaugh in his Western Civilisation course for Yale freshmen.
[1] Outside Yale Riggs was a patron and contributor to Commonweal magazine from 1922 until his death and a participant of the National Conference of Christians and Jews in the 1930s.