Maya Angelou, the "Phenomenal Woman" who wrote and fought for things that all men hold dear, wrote 30 on Wednesday. She was 86.

The iconic poet, author, actress and civil rights advocate died quietly in her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she was a professor at Wake Forest University since 1982.

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Her peaceful death, a stark contrast to the tumultuous life she lived early on, was announced by her only son, Guy B. Johnson.

Political, literary and entertainment personalities wasted no time dishing out tributes to the woman who, toward her twilight years, has come to be known as the "people's poet."

Born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4, 1928, Maya Angelou is one of the most influential American writers of her time who is renowned for her soaring poetry and painful memoirs.

Although she never attended university, Angelou published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, more than 10 volumes of poetry, and received dozens of awards and over 30 honorary doctoral degrees.

Maya Angelou traversed an astounding career that had her in the roles of a writer, poet, fry cook, nightclub singer, an actress in a touring version of Porgy and Bess, prostitute, director and producer of plays, movies and television programs.

But most of all, Maya Angelou was a magnificent writer best remembered for her autobiographical memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), a powerful indictment of the racial discrimination she experienced as a child growing up before World War II in racist Arkansas and California.

The name Maya Angelou was derived from the name of her first husband, Anastasios Angelopulos, a sailor. She used the name Maya Angelou for the first time when she worked briefly as a nightclub singer.

It was her youth marked by pain and injustice and a tempestuous relationship with her late mother, Vivian Baxter, whom she never addressed as "mother" but as "lady," that shaped Angelou as a writer. Her sometimes violent relationship with her mother scarred her forever.

Angelou was raped by her mother's boyfriend when she was just seven years old. This man was later beaten to death after Angelou testified against him.

"I was 7 1/2 and my 7 1/2-year-old logic deduced that my voice had killed him," Angelou wrote. "So I stopped speaking for almost six years."

To help Angelou talk again, her mother gave her poetry to read. That single, simple action produced astounding results. By nine-years old, Angelou was writing her own poems.

Like dedicated writers everywhere, Angelou chose to follow a "formula" to keep her going.

"I keep a hotel room in which I do my work - a tiny, mean room with just a bed, and sometimes, if I can find it, a face basin. I keep a dictionary, a bible, a deck of cards and a bottle of sherry in the room. I try to get there around seven, and work until around two in the afternoon ... Maybe after dinner I'll read to (my husband, Paul du Feu) what I have written that day. He doesn't comment. I don't invite comments from anybody but my editor."

Angelou married Feu in 1973; they divorced in 1981.

Angelou's seven autobiographical novels reveal the writer's experience as a young single mother. It tells of her travels in Africa and Europe with the cast of Porgy and Bess and her involvement with the civil rights movement during which she met towering civil rights legends such as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Billie Holiday.

She wrote of her life in Ghana and the years after her return to the US in 1965. She wrote of her decision to begin writing her first book, which became a classic.

"Out of a youth marked by pain and injustice, Dr. Maya Angelou rose with an unbending determination to fight for civil rights and inspire every one of us to recognize and embrace the possibility and potential we each hold," said President Barack Obama, who awarded Angelou the Medal of Freedom in 2011.

"With her soaring poetry, towering prose and mastery of a range of art forms, Dr. Angelou has spoken to the conscience of our nation. Her soul-stirring words have taught us how to reach across division and honor the beauty of our world."

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