Ann Taylor Biography. English poet and literary critic Ann Taylor was born in Islington and raised in a religious and literary family in London, Suffolk, Colchester, and Ongar. Her father was an engraver, and her mother was a writer. With her sister, Jane Taylor, she composed several volumes of children’s poems, and this collaboration, coupled with Jane’s early death, led to some confusion in attributing authorship to those early poems. Her sister, Jane Taylor, is also an important auhtor.
Poems’ Character
Taylor’s poems are uncomplicated. They may appear overly moralistic to modern readers. She is the author of the poetry collections Hymns for Infant Schools (1827) and Original Anniversary Hymns (1827) as well as the prose volume The Convalescent; Twelve Letters on Recovery from Sickness (1839).
With her sister and other collaborators, she published Original Poems for Infant Minds (two volumes, issued in 1804 and 1805), Rhymes for the Nursery (1806), Hymns for Infant Minds (1808), and Original Hymns for Sunday Schools (1812). The sisters also revised and contributed to the volume Signor Topsy Turvy’s Wonderful Magic Lantern; or, The World Turned Upside Down (1810) and contributed significantly to the anthology The Associate Minstrels (1810). The sisters are best known for their poems “My Mother” and “The Star.”
A founder of the Free Library in Nottingham, Taylor was also an active supporter of animal welfare. She is buried at Nottingham General Cemetery alongside her husband, the minister Joseph Gilbert.
