US author and poet Maya Angelou dies aged 86

Maya Angelou, the US author and poet whose landmark book of 1969, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - which describes in lyrical, unsparing prose her childhood in the Deep South - was among the first autobiographies by a 20th-century black woman to reach a wide general readership, died today in her home. She was 86 and lived in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Her death was confirmed by her longtime literary agent, Helen Brann. No immediate cause of death had been determined, but Ms. Brann said Ms. Angelou had been in frail health for some time and had had heart problems.

As well known as she was for her memoirs, which eventually filled six volumes, Angelou very likely received her widest exposure on a chilly January day in 1993, when she delivered the inaugural poem, On the Pulse of Morning, at the swearing-in of Bill Clinton, the nation's 42nd president, who, like Angelou, had grown up poor in rural Arkansas.

She wrote more than 30 books and was a Grammy winner for three spoken-word albums. She was also a professor of American studies at Wake Forest University. She was honored at the National Book Awards ceremony last year for her service to the literary community.

Agencies