Jane Taylor

Jane Taylor wrote what may be the most universally known verse in the English language — and almost nobody knows her name. "The Star," published with her sister Ann in Rhymes for the Nursery (1806), begins "Twinkle, twinkle, little star," and has been sung to the tune of a French folk melody ever since.

The poem was famous enough by 1865 for Lewis Carroll to parody it in Alice in Wonderland ("Twinkle, twinkle, little bat"). Taylor also wrote sharp, observant adult verse and a novel, but five quatrains about a star outlived everything else. She died of cancer at 40.