Author. He was an English author of the 18th century, who co-wrote "Tales from Shakespeare," with his eleven-year-older sister, Mary. This book was an adaption of twenty of Shakespeare's work for Victorian children, and after being published in 1807, it has never been out of print. In 1809 the siblings published "Mrs. Leicester's School", which was a collection of stories supposedly told by pupils. He received notoriety for his 1823 "Essays of Elia," a collection of 28 essays published singerly in the "London Magazine" on a variety of themes, and a second volume, "Last Essays of Elia," published in 1833. Born the youngest of seven, only he, Mary, and the oldest brother, John, lived to adulthood. He had to overcome stuttering. His sister Mary taught him how to read at an early age, then he had a schoolmistress before attending in 1781 the Academy of William Bird. With the help of his father's employer, he was enrolled on October 9, 1782 in Christ's Hospital, a charity boarding school with a reputation of being cruel to the students, yet producing scholars. Since his family was not able to give him a college education, he left school at fourteen to start a career. In April of 1792 he found a position as a clerk at the headquarters of the East India Company, remaining there until retirement. The position demanded that he would be available to leave his family's home for long periods of time. He wrote poetry, first with contributions to collections by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1796 and then Charles Lloyd in 1798. In 1802 he published "John Woodvil," a poetic tragedy. In 1808 he published a children's version of the "Odyssey," called "The Adventures of Ulysses." "The Old Familiar Faces" published in 1789 remains his best-known poem, yet his 1828 poem, "On an Infant Dying as Soon as It Was Born" is considered one of his greatest achievements. In 1796 in a manic fit, his sister, Mary, stabbed their mother to death. The coroner inquest returned a verdict of lunacy. He had been away from home for an attended period, leaving her to handle the household. He attempted to save her from the "madhouse" by volunteering to care for her, yet she was place in a Victorian asylum for the mentally ill directly after the incident for a period of time and again a few times throughout her lifetime. Besides the stress of earning an income to support the family, his sister became the primary caregiver for her demanding bedridden mother, a father with dementia, and her disabled older brother is said to have caused the mental breakdown. Between her recurrent bouts of mental illness and having to go to various mental institutions, his sister's books were published anonymously or under his name in order to shield her from anymore unwanted publicity. Their successful publications brought the two siblings from a life of poverty to becoming middle-class. He could afford the best of care for Mary instead of the "madhouse." He was at the center of a major literary circle in England, being close colleagues with William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and other authors of the era. In 1792 he sought the affections of Ann Simmins for a number of years, but she married another man, breaking Lamb's heart. In 1819 he proposed to Fanny Kelly, a popular comic actress, but she refused stating his family's dramatics were too overwhelming. He never married. In 1833 Mary's mental health declined and she was placed in a private home for mental patients again. With his health declining, he moved to the home to be with Mary, and after a debilitating fall while walking outside, he developed a bacterial infection a few days later, dying December of 1834. His sister Mary lived another thirteen years with a paid companion. The siblings share a grave marker. His literary pieces were taught in public school in England until World War II yet came in favor again in the 1970s. Since then, the Charles Lamb Society of London, which was founded in 1935, has flourished. In 1934 a bust of him was placed on Gitspur Street with the inscription "To the immortal memory of Charles Lamb. Perhaps the most loved name in English literature who was a Bluecoat Boy here for 7 years." A medallion of Charles Lamb is now located at the Charles Lamb Society. In 1907 a brown historical plaque was placed on his home at 64 Duncan Terrace, Islington in London. A Blue English Heritage Plaque was erected in 1999 in honor of him and his sister on their home at Lamb's Cottage, Church Street, Edmonton in London. He had at least four oil-on-canvas portraits painted, with one on exhibit at the London Portrait Gallery.