A comprehensive analysis is made of the experimental information on Gamow-Teller beta decay for the light (A\ensuremath{\le}18) nuclei. Experimental data on half-lives, Q values, and branching ratios are tabulated. Experimental logft values and beta-decay matrix elements are deduced from these data. The one-body-transition densities necessary to predict the beta-decay matrix elements are then calculated using a recently constructed shell-model Hamiltonian operating in the first four major shells. Using these parameters, effective Gamow-Teller operators are deduced for the 0p shell from a least-squares fit to 16 experimental matrix elements. The effective operators are used to calculate 83 decay matrix elements. Some specific decays are discussed.