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Carolyn Wells was born in Rahway, New Jersey, on June 18, 1862. After finishing school she worked as a librarian for the Rahway Library Association. Her first book, At the Sign of the Sphinx (1896), was a collection of charades. Her next publications were The Jingle Book and The Story of Betty (1899) followed by a book of verse entitled Idle Idyls the following year. After 1900 Wells wrote numerous novels and collections of poetry. Today she is best known for her light verse, particularly for several classic limericks, including this one:

A canner exceedingly canny
One morning remarked to his granny:
“A canner can can
Any thing that he can
But a canner can’t can a can, can he?”