{\b Charles Lamb}.

{\b Date of Birth}.: 10 February 1775

{\b Date of Death}.: 27 December 1834

{\b Works}. 
English essayist and poet. In 1796 he published four sonnets in Coleridge's 
first book, Poems on Various Subjects. Other poems appeared in Blank Verse 
(with Charles Lamb, 1798) and Album Verses (1830), and included The Old 
Familiar Faces (1798), Hester (1803) and On an Infant Dying as Soon as Born 
(1827). He also wrote the classic Tales from Shakespeare (1807) for children, 
in collaboration with Mary Lamb. He was a superb essayist, contributing to 
numerous journals and publishing two well-known collections, The Essays of 
Elia (1823) and The Last Essays of Elia (1833). In 1818 a miscellaneous 
collection, The Works of Charles Lamb, was issued.

{\b Featured Works}.

'The Old Familiar Faces', 'Hester', 'On an Infant dying as soon as born'.

{\b General Comment}.

Lamb's father was clerk to the lawyer Samuel Salt, and the young Charles first 
developed his love of books while leafing through the library in Salt's house. 
He was educated at Christ's Hospital school, where he made friends with a 
fellow schoolboy, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Though he was an able scholar, Lamb 
was afflicted with a stammer, which meant that a career as a preacher was 
impractical. Three years after leaving school, he became a clerk with the East 
India Company, where he worked until his retirement in 1825.

There was a history of mental illness in the family, and Charles suffered a 
short bout of insanity in 1795-6, from which he recovered fully. His sister 
Mary was much less fortunate however, and in 1796 she killed their mother in a 
fit of madness. Her mental health was poor all her life, and Charles took sole 
care of her after the death of their father. There was a strong bond of 
affection between the two, but the responsibility put great strain on Charles 
and prevented him from marrying.

Though his job and family obligations meant that he was unable to devote his 
time wholeheartedly to writing, Lamb produced a considerable body of work. The 
essays he wrote under the pseudonym of 'Elia' are largely autobiographical and 
represent his finest achievement in prose, but his influence also made itself 
felt through his friendships: with Coleridge, the Wordsworths, William Hazlitt 
and William Godwin. His letters to them contain much of his best criticism, 
and his advice and encouragement to these writers exercised a significant 
influence on the direction of English literature at this time.