Charles Lamb, (born Feb. 10, 1775, London, Eng.died Dec.

27, 1834, Edmonton,

Middlesex), English essayist and critic, best known for his Essays of Elia (182333).
Lamb went to school at Christs Hospital, where he studied until 1789. He was a
near contemporary there of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and of Leigh Hunt. In 1792
Lamb found employment as a clerk at East India House (the headquarters of the
East India Company), remaining there until retirement in 1825. In 1796 Lambs
sister, Mary, in a fit of madness (which was to prove recurrent) killed their mother.
Lamb reacted with courage and loyalty, taking on himself the burden of looking
after Mary.
Lambs first appearances in print were as a poet, with contributions to collections by
Coleridge (1796) and by Charles Lloyd (1798). A Tale of Rosamund Gray, a prose
romance, appeared in 1798, and in 1802 he published John Woodvil, a poetic
tragedy. The Old Familiar Faces (1789) remains his best-known poem, although
On an Infant Dying As Soon As It Was Born (1828) is his finest poetic achievement.
In 1807 Lamb and his sister published Tales from Shakespear, a retelling of the
plays for children, and in 1809 they published Mrs. Leicesters School, a collection of
stories supposedly told by pupils of a school in Hertfordshire. In 1808 Charles
published a childrens version of the Odyssey, called The Adventures of Ulysses.
In 1808 Lamb also published Specimens of English Dramatic Poets Who Lived About
the Time of Shakespear, a selection of scenes from Elizabethan dramas; it had a
considerable influence on the style of 19th-century English verse. Lamb also
contributed critical papers on Shakespeare and on William Hogarth to Hunts
Reflector. Lambs criticism often appears in the form of marginalia, reactions, and
responses: brief comments, delicately phrased, but hardly ever argued through.
Lambs greatest achievements were his remarkable letters and the essays that he
wrote under the pseudonym Elia for London Magazine, which was founded in 1820.
His style is highly personal and mannered, its function being to create and
delineate the persona of Elia, and the writing, though sometimes simple, is never
plain. The essays conjure up, with humour and sometimes with pathos, old
acquaintances; they also recall scenes from childhood and from later life, and they
indulge the authors sense of playfulness and fancy. Beneath their whimsical
surface, Lambs essays are as much an expression of the Romantic movement as
the verse of Coleridge and William Wordsworth. Elias love of urban and suburban
subject matter, however, points ahead, toward the work of Charles Dickens. The
essay On the Artificial Comedy of the Last Century (1822) both helped to revive
interest in Restoration comedy and anticipated the assumptions of the Aesthetic
movement of the late 19th century. Lambs first Elia essays were published
separately in 1823; a second series appeared, as The Last Essays of Elia, in 1833.
Charles Lamb - Biography

Charles Lamb was an important English poet and literary critic of Welsh origin. He
was born in London on February 10th 1775. As an expert of the Shakespearean
period as well as an author of talent, Lamb would come to be considered one of the
most significant literary critic of his time. Moreover, Lamb would be celebrated for
his simple, yet not simplistic, personal reflections on daily life, which would always
be supplemented with a distinctive sense of both humor and tragedy. Lambs two
most famous works were to be Essays of Elia, and, Tales from Shakespeare, in fact a
childrens book. He would actually write the latter in collaboration with his sister,
Mary Lamb (1764 - 1847). Charles Lamb also had an older brother, John, named
after their father, as well as four other brothers and sisters who would not survive
their infancy. Lamb would come to be described by his main biographer, E.V. Lucas,
as the most touching character in English literature.
Lambs parents were Elizabeth Field and John Lamb. Charles would be their last
child after Mary, who was born 11 years earlier while John, the brother, would be
born even earlier than his sister. The father was a clerk for a lawyer. Years later
Charles would write a kind of biographical portrait of him in a piece entitled Elia on
the Old Benchers and would refer to him by the name of Lovel.
Charles Lamb would become a close friend of the famous British philosopher,
literary critic and poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834). In fact Lambs first
published work would be four sonnets which would be included in the 1796 Poems
on Various Subjects by Coleridge. And yet because Lamb had a stutter he would not
only be disqualified at boarding school for a clerical career, but while Coleridge and
others would be able to go on to university, Lamb stopped his schooling at the age
of 14. Notwithstanding this would not prevent Lamb to become an important
member, and indeed to play an important part in a circle of famous authors. This
included important literary figures such as poet William Wordworth (1770 - 1850),
essayist and poet Leigh Hunt (1784 - 1859), writer and literary critic William Hazlitt
(1778 - 1830) as well as poet Robert Southey (1774 - 1843).
In 1819 at the age of 44, Lamb who had never married mostly because of his
commitment to his troubled family, would fall in love with Fanny Kelly, an actress
from Covent Garden. He would eventually propose to her but she would refuse and
he would in the end die single. Unmarried, Lamb would live with his sister, Mary
Lamb, who too would stay single as she almost perpetually would suffer from
serious mental disorders. In fact, in 1796, in a fit of insanity, she would stab their
mother, Elizabeth, killing her with a kitchen knife. After that, in spite of the difficult
turn of events Charles did all he could to stay close to his sister and would even in
fact end up becoming Marys official guardian, thus making it possible for her to be
released form the mental hospital. It is noteworthy to keep in kind that when she
felt at home and well enough, Mary could be one of the most creative, lively
woman.

Case in point, together with his sister Charles would write the famous Tales of
Shakespeare, a collection of 20 tales inspired by the eminent playwright. Published
in 1807 this book remains to this day a classic of British literature for youth. The
first publisher of the work was the British journalist, political philosopher and
novelist William Godwin (1756 - 1836), husband of the English philosopher and one
of the first advocate of womens right Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 - 1797), and also
father of British writer Mary Shelley (1797 - 1851). The book was to be constantly
reprinted to this day and was even finally illustrated for the first time in 1899 by
Arthur Rackham (1867 - 1939). The work would also be translated into several
languages and thus made available across the globe.

In the Essays of Elia, Lambs intimate and informal tone of voice would captivate
many readers, old and young. The name of Elia had actually been the alias he had
used whenever he would contribute to the renowned London Magazine. The essays
describes the strange world of the authors fictional alter ego that is embodied is
the melancholic character Elia. It is as a true painter of modern life that Lamb
reinvents here the tradition of essay writing. He does so, for instance, by mixing
subjective bias, sensuality and critical thinking. In those essays Lamb makes good
use of irony, nostalgia, a shares with us his vivid fascination for the details of things,
including the very minutes of everyday life. In sum, Essays of Elia constitute a
singular text in which the author is clearly fascinated by the diversity of things, the
unreality of the past, the absolute uniqueness of experience as well as a keen
awareness of the limitation of writing.
Lambs writings also includes poetry with Blank Verse (1798), and with Prides Cure
(1802). Novels, such as The Adventures of Ulysses (1808) which was written with
children in mind as the audience, it is thus reminiscent of The Tales from
Shakespeare. But also Specimens of English Dramatic poets who lived about the
time of Shakespeare (1808), which is essentially a kind of anthology of sections
from Elizabethan dramas together with commentaries. This work has been said to
have had a significant impact on the way nineteenth century English verses would
come to be written. In On the Tragedies of Shakespeare (1811) Charles Lamb
examines and is critical of Hamlets To be or not to be. He would controversially
state in the piece that:
"I confess myself utterly unable to appreciate that celebrated soliloquy in Hamlet,
beginning 'To be or not to be', or to tell whether it be good, bad, or indifferent; it has
been so handled and pawed about by declamatory boys and men, and torn so
inhumanly from its living place and principle of continuity in the play, till it is
become to me a perfect dead member."
We also have pieces such as Witches and Other Night Fears (1821) and The Last
Essays of Elia (1833), which is the second volume of the famous Essays of Elia

(1823). This last volume would in fact be published shortly before Lambs death. It
includes essay titles such as A Bachelors Complaint of the Behaviour of Married
People; The Two Races of Men; My First Play; Confessions of a Drunkard; Mrs.
Battles Opinions on Whist as well as others. In a very real sense, while in his
lifetime Lamb was encouraged by many for his hard work in literature, he actually
enjoyed very little appreciation for his unique talent while he was alive. Not
surprisingly perhaps, he would thus go through difficult moments of doubt with
regards to his work and seriously seems to have wondered about his ability to write
anything worth mentioning. In fact, in similar ways to his sister, Mary, he too would
suffer episodes of psychological illness. Be that as it may, Charles Lamb left us with
a very rich legacy o f work ranging from short stories, essays, poetry, even plays, as
well as letters filled with his exceptional intimate style and humor.
Lamb would succumb of an infection he would unfortunately contract from a minor
cut on his face after having fallen in the street, in fact only several months after
Coleridge. Charles Lamb would die at Edmonton, a suburb of London on December
27th 1834 at the age of 59. He is buried at All Saints Churchyard, also in Edmonton.
Mary, his sister would survive him by more than a decade and would be buried next
to him. It is interesting to note that in 1849, 15 years after Lambs death, the French
author Eugne Forcade (1820 - 1869) would describe Lamb as having been of an
eminently friendly nature, an original writer, a kind of hero constantly caring for his
poor sister.
Charles Lamb achieved lasting fame as a writer during the years 1820-1825, when
he captivated the discerning English reading public with his personal essays in the
London Magazine, collected as Essays of Elia (1823) and The Last Essays of Elia
(1833). Known for their charm, humor, and perception, and laced with
idiosyncrasies, these essays appear to be modest in scope, but their soundings are
deep, and their ripples extend to embrace much of human lifeparticularly the life
of the imagination. Lamb is increasingly becoming known, too, for his critical
writings. Lamb as Critic (1980) gathers his criticism from all sources, including
letters. A new edition of his entertaining letters is also underway. While Lamb was
an occasional journalist, a playwright (of small success), a writer for children, and a
poet, it is his prose which has endured. He early realized that poetry was not his
vocation; his best poetry was written in youth.
The son of John and Elizabeth Field Lamb, Charles Lamb, a Londoner who loved and
celebrated that city, was born in the Temple, the abode of London lawyers, where
his father was factotum for one of these, Samuel Salt. The family was ambitious for
its two sons, John and Charles, and successful in entering Charles at Christ's
Hospital, a London charity school of merit, on 9 October 1782. Here he met Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, a fellow pupil who was Lamb's close friend for the rest of their lives
and who helped stir his growing interest in poetry. Lamb left school early, on 23
November 1789. (Because he had a severe stammer, he did not seek a university
career, then intended to prepare young men for orders in the Church of England.) In

September 1791 he found work as a clerk at the South Sea House, but he left the
following February, and in April he became a clerk at the East India Company, where
he remained for thirty-three years, never feeling fitted for the work nor much
interested in "business," but managing to survive, though without promotion.
Soon after leaving school, he was sent to Hertfordshire to his ill grandmother,
housekeeper in a mansion seldom visited by its owners. Here he fell in love with Ann
Simmons, subject of his earliest sonnets (though his first to be published, in the 29
December 1794 issue of the Morning Chronicle, was a joint effort with Coleridge to
the actress Sarah Siddonsevidence of his lifelong devotion to the London theater).
His "Anna" sonnets, which appeared in the 1796 and 1797 editions of Coleridge's
Poems, have a sentimental, nostalgic quality: "Was it some sweet device of Faery /
That mocked my steps with many a lonely glade, / And fancied wanderings with a
fair-hair'd maid?"; "Methinks how dainty sweet it were, reclin'd"; "When last I roved
these winding wood-walks green"; "A timid grace sits trembling in her eye." All were
written after the love affair had ended, to Lamb's regret. His early novel, A Tale of
Rosamund Gray (1798), is also rooted in the Ann episode.
After the death of Samuel Salt in 1792 the Lambs were in straitened circumstances,
mother and father both ill. The elder brother, John, was living independently and
was not generous to his family. On Charles (after an unpaid apprenticeship) and his
elder sister, Mary, a dressmaker who had already shown signs of mental instability,
fell the burden of providing for the family, and Mary took on the nursing as well. Two
of Lamb's early sonnets are addressed to her: Mary, who was ten years older than
Charles, had mothered him as a child, and their relationship was always a close one.
Charles continued to writea ballad on a Scottish theme, poems to friends and to
William Cowper on that poet's recovery from a fit of madness. "A Vision of
Repentance" ("I saw a famous fountain, in my dream") treats a truly Romantic
themethe hope of God's forgiveness for the sin of a repentant Psyche. It has a
Keatsian charm but little lasting distinction.
The tragedy of 22 September 1796when Mary, exhausted and deranged from
overwork, killed their mother with a carving knifechanged both their lives forever.
She was judged temporarily insane, and Lamb at twenty-two took full legal
responsibility for her for life, to avoid her permanent confinement in a madhouse.
Thereafter she was most often lucid, warm, understanding, and much admired by
such friends as the essayist William Hazlitt. She also developed skills as a writer. But
she was almost annually visited by the depressive illness which led to her
confinement for weeks at a time in a private hospital in Hoxton. (Lamb too had been
confined briefly at Hoxton for his mental state in 1795, but there was no later
recurrence.) Both were known for their capacity for friendship and for their mid-life
weekly gatherings of writers, lawyers, actors, and the odd but interesting
"characters" for whom Lamb had a weakness.

For the moment Lamb "renounced" poetry altogether, but he soon took it up again
and began work on a tragedy in Shakespearean blank verse, John Woodvil (1802),
which has autobiographical elements. While there are a few fine lines and the
writing in general is competent but unoriginal, plotting and character are weak: it
was never produced. "The Wife's Trial," a late play in blank verse, is of minor
interest. It was published in the December 1828 issue of Blackwood's Magazine. His
only play to reach the stage, Mr. H(in prose), was roundly hissed in London when
it opened on 10 December 1806, but it was successfully produced in the United
States thereafter.
Though soon after his mother's death he announced his intention to leave poetry
"to my betters," Lamb continued to write verse of various kinds throughout his life:
sonnets, lyrics, blank verse, light verse, prologues and epilogues to the plays of
friends, satirical verse, verse translations, verse for children, and finally Album
Verses (1830), written to please young ladies who kept books of such tributes. By
1820 he had developed what was to be his "Elia" prose style. He was the first
intensely personal, truly Romantic essayist, never rivaled in popularity by his friends
Leigh Hunt and William Hazlitt. Many of Lamb's essays before those he signed Elia
came out in Hunt's publications."
For students of Lamb and for his recent biographers, Lamb's poetry is mainly of
interest as autobiography and as light on the essays, often treating the same
subjects. The great French critic Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve admired Lamb's
early sonnet "Innocence" so much that he translated it, but most critics then and
now agree with Leigh Hunt that Lamb "wanted sufficient heat and music to render
his poetry as good as his prose." Alaric A. Watts, another of Lamb's contemporaries,
wrote a jingle on Lamb that includes these lines: "For what if thy Muse will be
sometimes perverse, / And present us with prose when she means to give verse?"
He noted that Lamb's prose is often admirably poetic, so that "we miss not the
rhyme." In the twentieth century A. C. Ward has effectively demonstrated that
Lamb's poetry lacks both the inspiration and discipline of his prose, concluding that
in his poetry "his intensity of emotion is never once matched with an intensely
personal manner of expression: he does not find the one perfect mould, and hardly
ever lights upon the miraculous right word...." (For "never once" one should
substitute "rarely.") E. V. Lucas, Edmund Blunden, George L. Barnett, and William
Kean Seymour, however, find in much of it charm, honesty, strength of feeling, and
originality. "His poetry," Seymour concludes, "makes a pendant to his Essays, and it
is a lustrous and significant pendant." The roles of artist and critic, of course,
demand very different abilities: Lamb was, in correspondence, an able critic of the
poetry of Coleridge and Wordsworth, who sometimes took his advice. (He met
Wordsworth, who became a lifelong friend, through Coleridge in 1797.)"
Of considerable interest are Lamb's blank-verse poems, which reveal--with passion
that comes through--his spiritual struggles after the tragedy, as he sought
consolation in religion. In one, he doubts whether atheists or deists (such as his

friend William Godwin, novelist, philosopher, and publisher of children's books) have
adequate answers for the larger questions of life; other poems dwell on the death of
the old aunt whose favorite he was (she also appears in his essay "Witches and
Other Night-Fears"), on his dead mother with regrets for days gone, on his father's
senility, on Mary's fate, and on his growing doubts about institutional religion. Yet
these poems are among his most "prosy," with only an occasional impressive
passage; their grammatical complexities are hard to follow. Several were published
with poems by his Quaker friend Charles Lloyd in their Blank Verse (1798)."
Soon after composing this group he contributed a piece on his grandmother (later
developed in "Dream-Children") to Lloyd's Poems on the Death of Priscilla Farmer
(1796). The culmination of this period was "The Old Familiar Faces" (written in 1798
and published in Blank Verse), which ends:
some they have died and some they have left me,
And some are taken from me; all are departed;
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.
This poem is still anthologized; it tells with grace the story of his own youth,
touching a universal human chord. Written in 1803 and published in Lamb's 1818
Works, "Hester" takes as its subject a young Quaker whom he had often seen but to
whom he had never spoken, though he said he was "in love" with her. She married
early and soon died; his poem, a delicate tribute to a charming girl who enhances
even Death, ends with lines addressed to her:
My sprightly neighbour, gone before
To that unknown and silent shore,
Shall we not meet, as heretofore,
Some summer morning,
When from thy cheerful eyes a ray
Hath struck a bliss upon the day,
A bliss that would not go away,
A sweet fore-warning?"
These are his poetic triumphs. After them came more poems to friends, and also
political verses, which are often sharp and clever, even venomous. "The Triumph of
the Whale," on the prince regent, whom he sincerely hated, was published in Hunt's
Examiner (15 March 1812) and may have had a part in Hunt's two-year
incarceration for libel, though the official charge was based on Hunt's editorial a

week later. "The Gipsy's Malison," another harsh poem of Lamb's later years--on the
ill-born child who is destined to hang--is sometimes anthologized. Like "The Triumph
of the Whale," it reveals a bitter aspect of Lamb's complex nature, which shows
rarely but persistently in his work. Among Lamb's humorous light-verse pieces, "A
Farewell to Tobacco" is one of the best. (He never gave up smoking or lost his taste
for drink, though he tried often.)"
In 1808 he published his Specimens of English Dramatic Poets, Who Lived About
the time of Shakspeare, with commentary that was later admired by the younger
generation of Romantics, particularly Keats, and established Lamb as a critic. For
needed cash, he and Mary, at Godwin's request, wrote Poetry for Children (1809), in
which their fondness for children shines through the moral verses. It did not reach a
second edition, but the Lambs were much more successful with Mrs. Leicester's
School (1809) and Tales from Shakespear (1807), which has never since been out of
print."
In 1818 Lamb published his early Works, and in 1819 he proposed to Fanny Kelly, a
popular comic actress who was later a friend of Dickens and founder of the first
dramatic school for girls. She refused him, confiding to a friend that she could not
carry Mary's problems too. Charles and Mary did know a sort of parenthood in their
1823 "adoption" of a teenage orphan, Emma Isola, who regarded their home as hers
until she married Lamb's new young publisher, Edward Moxon, in 1833."
In the years 1820-1825 Lamb made his reputation as Elia in the London Magazine.
By 1825, though he was still a clerk, Lamb's salary had risen after long service, and
he was able to retire at fifty with a good pension and provision for Mary. He
occupied his new leisure for several years at the British Museum, compiling more
dramatic excerpts, which appeared in William Hone's Table Book throughout 1827,
and contributing other writings to periodicals. When Album Verses appeared in
1830, followed by the humorous ballad Satan in Search of a Wife (1831), critics
found them disappointing fluff. His Last Essays of Elia (1833), from the London
Magazine, reminded readers of his true stature."
Brother and sister had had to move many times as the reason for Mary's increasing
absences from home became known. Their last move was to a sort of sanitarium at
Edmonton, near London, in 1833. Here, while out walking one day in 1834, Lamb
fell. He died of erysipelas a few days later. Mary lived on, with a paid companion, till
1847."
Lamb's essays were taught in schools until World War II, when reaction set in--from
critics such as F. R. Leavis and others--dulling the sentimental admiration Lamb had
till then enjoyed. Yet in the 1970s serious scholars increasingly discovered new
virtues in his fine letters and criticism, and new subtleties in the old essays: too long
had it been said that the affection he inspired precluded criticism. New biographies
and studies have recently appeared, and in the 1980s there began a renewed

appreciation for Lamb's prose--though not for his poetry. The Charles Lamb Society
of London flourishes, and publishes a bulletin which has become impressively
scholarly since its new series began in the 1970s.
Winifred F. Courtney, Greenwood, South Carolina
Bibliography
BOOKS
Blank Verse, by Lamb and Charles Lloyd (London: Printed by T. Bensley for J. & A.
Arch, 1798).
A Tale of Rosamund Gray and Old Blind Margaret (Birmingham: Printed by Thomas
Pearson, 1798; London: Printed for Lee & Hurst, 1798).
John Woodvil: A Tragedy (London: Printed by T. Plummer for G. & J. Robinson, 1802).
The King and Queen of Hearts (London: Printed for Thos Hodgkins, 1805).
Tales from Shakespear. Designed for the Use of Young Persons, 2 volumes, by
Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb, attributed to Charles Lamb (London: Printed for
Thomas Hodgkins at the Juvenile Library, 1807; Philadelphia: Published by Bradford
& Inskeep, and by Inskeep & Bradford, New York, printed by J. Maxwell, 1813).
The Adventures of Ulysses (London: Printed by T. Davison for the Juvenile Library,
1808; New York: Harper, 1879).
Mrs. Leicester's School, by Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb (London: Printed for M. J.
Godwin at the Juvenile Library, 1809; George Town: J. Milligan, 1811).
Poetry for Children, Entirely Original, 2 volumes, by Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb
(London: Printed for M. J. Godwin at the Juvenile Library, 1809; Boston: West &
Richardson, and E. Cotton, 1812).
Prince Dorus: Or, Flattery Put Out of Countenance. A Poetical Version of an Ancient
Tale (London: Printed for M. J. Godwin at the Juvenile Library, 1811).
Mr. H., or Beware a Bad Name. A Farce in Two Acts [pirated edition] (Philadelphia:
Published by M. Carey, printed by A. Fagan, 1813).
The Works of Charles Lamb, 2 volumes (London: Ollier, 1818).
Elia: Essays which have appeared under that signature in the London Magazine
(London: Printed for Taylor & Hessey, 1823; [pirated edition] Philadelphia: Carey,
Lea & Carey, printed by Mifflin & Parry, 1828).

Elia: Essays which have appeared under that name in the London Magazine Second
Series [pirated edition] (Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, printed by J. R. A. Skerret,
1828)--includes three essays not written by Lamb.
Album Verses, with a Few Others (London: Moxon, 1830).
Satan in Search of a Wife (London: Moxon, 1831).
The Last Essays of Elia (London: Moxon, 1833; Philadelphia: T. K. Greenbank, 1833).
COLLECTIONS
The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, 7 volumes, edited by E. V. Lucas (London:
Methuen, 1903-1905; New York: Putnam's, 1903-1905).
Charles Lamb on Shakespeare, edited by Joan Coldwell (Gerrards Cross: Colin
Smythe, 1978).
Lamb as Critic, edited by Roy Park (London & Henley: Routledge & Kegan Paul,
1980).
PLAY PRODUCTION
Mr. H----, London, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, 10 December 1806.
OTHER
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Poems on Various Subjects, includes four poems by Lamb
(London: C. G. & J. Robinson/Bristol: J. Cottle, 1796); enlarged as Poems, Second
Edition, to which are now added Poems by Charles Lamb, and Charles Lloyd,
includes ten poems by Lamb (Bristol: Printed by N. Biggs for J. Cottle and Robinsons,
London, 1797).
Charles Lloyd, Poems on the Death of Priscilla Farmer, includes one poem by Lamb
(Bristol: Printed by N. Biggs & sold by James Phillips, London, 1796).
Specimens of English Dramatic Poets, Who Lived About the Time of Shakspeare,
edited, with commentary, by Lamb (London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees &
Orme, 1808; New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1845).
LETTERS
The Letters of Charles Lamb, to Which Are Added Those of His Sister Mary Lamb, 3
volumes, edited by E. V. Lucas (London: Dent / Methuen, 1935; New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1935).
The Letters of Charles and Mary Anne Lamb, 3 volumes to date, edited by Edwin W.
Marrs, Jr. (Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 1975-).

There are significant collections in the Henry E. Huntington Library, the New York
Public Library, the Pierpont Morgan Library, the British Library, and libraries at
Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, the University of Texas,
and the University of Kentucky. The Charles Lamb Society Library, which holds some
autograph items, is now housed in the Guildhall Library, London.
Further Reading
Luther S. Livingston, A Bibliography of the First Editions in Book Form of the Writings
of Charles and Mary Lamb Published Prior to Charles Lamb's Death in 1834 (New
York: Printed for J. A. Spoor, 1903).
Thomas Hutchinson, "Bibliographical List (1794-1834) of the Published Writings of
Charles and Mary Lamb," in The Works of Charles Lamb, edited by Hutchinson
(London & New York: Oxford University Press, 1908), pp. xvii-xlvii.
Joseph C. Thomson, Bibliography of the Writings of Charles and Mary Lamb (Hull:
Tutin, 1908).
George L. Barnett and Stuart M. Tave, "Charles Lamb," in The English Romantic
Poets & Essayists: A Review of Research and Criticism, revised edition, edited by
Carolyn Washburn Houtchens and Lawrence Huston Houtchens (New York: Published
for the Modern Language Association of America by New York University Press,
1966).
Barry Cornwall (Bryan Waller Procter), Charles Lamb: A Memoir (London: Moxon,
1866; Boston: Roberts, 1866).
Alfred Ainger, Charles Lamb, English Men of Letters Series (London: Macmillan,
1882; New York: Harper, 1882).
Jules Derocquigny, Charles Lamb: sa vie et ses oeuvres (Lille: Le Bigot, 1904).
E. V. Lucas, The Life of Charles Lamb, 2 volumes (London: Methuen, 1905); revised
edition, 1 volume (London: Methuen, 1921).
Edmund Blunden, comp., Charles Lamb: His Life Recorded by His Contemporaries
(London: Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, 1934).
Henry Crabb Robinson, Henry Crabb Robinson on Books and Their Writers, 3
volumes, edited by Edith J. Morley (London: Dent, 1938).
Ernest C. Ross, The Ordeal of Bridget Elia: A Chronicle of the Lambs (Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1940).
Will D. Howe, Charles Lamb and His Friends (New York & Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill,
1944).

Winifred F. Courtney, Young Charles Lamb, 1775-1802 (London: Macmillan, 1982;

New York: New York University Press, 1982).
David Cecil, A Portrait of Charles Lamb (London: Constable, 1983).
George L. Barnett, Charles Lamb (Boston: Twayne, 1976).
Barnett, The Evolution of Elia, Indiana University Humanities Series, no. 53
(Bloomington, 1964).
Edmund Blunden, Charles Lamb and His Contemporaries (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1933).
Charles Lamb Bulletin (1935-1972; new series 1973- ).
Reginald L. Hine, Charles Lamb and His Hertfordshire (London: Dent, 1949).
Edith C. Johnson, Lamb Always Elia (London: Methuen, 1935).
E. V. Lucas, Charles Lamb and the Lloyds (London: Smith, Elder, 1898).
Wallace Nethery, Charles Lamb in America to 1848 (Worcester, Mass.: St. Onge,
1963).
Nethery, Eliana Americana: Charles Lamb in the United States 1849-1866 (Los
Angeles: Plantin Press, 1971).
Roy Park, Introduction to Lamb as Critic, edited by Park (London & Henley:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980).
Claude A. Prance, Companion to Charles Lamb: A Guide to People and Places, 17601847 (London: Mansell, 1983).
S. M. Rich, comp., The Elian Miscellany: A Charles Lamb Anthology (London: Joseph,
1931).
Frank P. Riga and Claude E. Prance, Index to The London Magazine (New York &
London: Garland, 1978).
William Kean Seymour, "Charles Lamb as a Poet," Essays by Divers Hands, new
series 26 (March 1954): 103-126.
A. C. Ward, The Frolic and the Gentle: A Centenary Study of Charles Lamb (London:
Methuen, 1934).
George Whalley, "Coleridge's Debt to Charles Lamb," Essays and Studies by
Members of the English Association, new series 11 (1958): 68-85.