Riley was born in Manchester, his father being the manager of a cloth printing factory and Methodist preacher.
[1] He trained as an engraver before moving to the United States for three years, then returned to England to work as a commercial traveller.
[2] In the late 1860s, Riley returned to the U.S., where he became an active socialist and gained experience as a journalist.
[4] The farm project was not a success; the workers, former shoemakers, fell into dispute with each other and with Riley, and the land was not as productive as had been hoped.
[1] In 1884, Edward Carpenter stayed with Riley while he was visiting Walt Whitman.