Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Born in Wisconsin in 1850, she became one of the most widely read American poets of her era, writing verse that was direct, emotional, and easy to remember. Her best-known poem, "Solitude," helped make her famous, and her books and newspaper writings brought her a remarkably broad readership.

Her work often explored love, heartbreak, ambition, endurance, and the inner life, and she also wrote prose as well as poetry. Later in life, she became closely associated with New Thought and other spiritual interests, which shaped much of her later writing.

She died in 1919, but her lines have had an unusually long afterlife in popular culture. Readers still recognize her for the way she turned large feelings into simple, quotable language.