The daughter of Isaac Taylor, an engraver, painter, and minister, Jane Taylor carved out a prominent career as a poet, and novelist, and also followed her father's footsteps by also becoming an engraver. Her best known work, the poem 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' (first published as 'The Star' in 1806) later became a favourite nursery rhyme. Indeed the first stanza has become so well-known that it has passed into folklore and Taylor's name as the author is almost always uncredited.
Much of Taylor's writing was done in collaboration with her sister, Ann. Their publications include Original Poems for Infant Minds (1804), Rhymes for the Nursery (1806), Limed Twigs to Catch Young Birds (1808), City Scenes; Or, A Peep into London (1809), Hymns for Infant Minds (1810), Original Hymns for Sunday School (1812), and The Linnet’s Life: Twelve Poems (1822). Their revision and expansion of an 18th-century book of humorous children’s verse was published as Signor Topsy-Turvy’s Wonderful Magic Lantern, or, The world turned upside down (1810), and the sisters also contributed significantly to The Associate Minstrels (1810), a book of children’s poetry.
Following her sister’s marriage, Jane wrote her composed her first solo work, the children’s novel Display: A Tale for Young People (1815), the satire Essays in Rhyme on Morals and Manners (1816) and from 1816 was a regular contributor to Youth’s Magazine.
Taylor’s work was widely reviewed and translated during her lifetime, and poet Robert Browning acknowledged her influence on his work. Contemporary critic Stuart Curran noted, "Taylor’s capacity to reveal the inner life as a thing is, it could be asserted, unrivaled in English literature before Dickens."
[Source: Booktopia]
