New Delhi, April 6 -- Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis in 1928, became one of the most influential American writers of the 20th century through a career that stretched across poetry, memoir, performance, journalism, and civil-rights activism. Her breakthrough came with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969, which made her a major literary voice, and her public stature deepened further when she read "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration. By the time of her death in 2014, Angelou had become not just a celebrated poet and memoirist, but a moral voice whose work blended personal endurance with public courage.

This familiar version is strongly associated with Angelou, but the best-supporte...