The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom
Center
Lamb, Charles, 1775-1834
Charles Lamb Collection
1801-1834
5 boxes, 1 oversize folder (osf) (1.97 linear feet)
The Charles Lamb Collection consists
primarily of handwritten manuscripts, Lamb's fair copies of works by others, and
outgoing correspondence from Lamb and his sister Mary.
English
Acquisition:
Gift (Stark Collection, 1925) and purchase (Hanley Collection, 1964)
Access:
Open for research
Processed by:
Jamie Hawkins-Kirkham, 2010
Biographical Sketch
Charles Lamb was born in London on February 10, 1775, to John and Elizabeth Field
Lamb. In October 1787, he began his education at Christ's Hospital where he met his
life-long friend, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Christ's Hospital was intended to prepare
boys for a university education followed by taking orders in the Church of England.
However, Lamb's stammer caused him to leave school early and find work first as a
secretary to the businessman Joseph Paice, then as a clerk at the East India Company
where he would remain for thirty-three years. After Lamb left school, he met Ann
Simmons, the inspiration for some of his earliest poetry, which was first published
in the 1796 edition of Coleridge's
Poems.
In September 1796, tragedy struck the Lamb family when Mary, Lamb's elder sister who
had a history of mental instability, killed their mother. She was judged temporarily
insane and sent to Hoxton Asylum. To prevent her permanent confinement in a mental
institution, Charles made the decision to devote his life to his sister's care.
While her illness did necessitate occasional periods of confinement, Mary was able
to lead a somewhat normal life under the care of her brother, with whom she lived
and even helped to write children's literature.
For a time, Lamb took a break from writing to focus on caring for his sister, but he
soon took it up again, and in June 1797 contributed fifteen poems to Samuel Taylor
Coleridge's
Poems, Second Edition. Lamb continued to
write poetry throughout his life, but he also began to try his hand at theater,
novel writing, children's literature, and journalistic writing. He wrote plays,
including John Woodvil, a tragedy in Shakespearean
blank verse, but he turned increasingly to prose, the earliest example of which is
his novel A Tale of Rosamund Gray (1798).
In 1820, Lamb began writing essays under the pseudonym Elia for
London Magazine. These essays, for which Lamb is best
known, were published as Elia (1823) and The Last Essays of Elia (1833). In 1823, Charles and
Mary moved to Colebrooke Row in Islington where they adopted Emma Isola, whom they
had met in Cambridge when she was nine. In the following years, Lamb was able to
retire from the East India Company, but despite his new freedom, Lamb wrote less in
the last decade of his life. He died on December 27, 1834.
Sources:
Courtney, Winifred F.
Charles Lamb.
Dictionary of Literary Biography,
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/GLD/ (accessed 29 October 2010).
Swaab, Peter.
Lamb, Charles (1775-1834),
Essayist. Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004,
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15912 (accessed 29 October 2010).
Scope and Contents
The Charles Lamb Collection consists primarily of handwritten manuscripts, Lamb's
fair copies of works by others, and outgoing correspondence from Lamb and his sister
Mary. The collection is arranged in two series, I. Works, 1804-1825, undated, and
II. Outgoing Correspondence, 1801-1834. Part of this collection was previously
accessible through a card catalog but has been recataloged as part of a
retrospective conversion project.
The Works Series is subdivided into Lamb's works, Lamb's fair copies, and other
papers. Lamb's works consist of an acrostic, a biblical question game, a lesson in
English grammar, and numerous poems and essays. Also included is a commonplace book
with poems, epitaphs, excerpts, and acrostics. Lamb's fair copies consist of Lamb's
handwritten copies of the poetry of authors such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles
Valentine Le Grice, Andrew Marvell, Thomas Overbury, Matthew Prior, William Strode,
Thomas Tickell, Edmund Waller, and George Withers. The final item in the series is a
photostat regarding Lamb by an unidentified author.
The Outgoing Correspondence Series consists of letters sent by Lamb and his sister,
Mary. The letters are subdivided by author and then arranged by recipient and date.
The bulk of the letters are written to William Wordsworth. Other recipients include
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sarah Hazlitt, Charles Ollier, John Howard Payne, John
Rickman, Dorothy Wordsworth, and Mary Wordsworth. Included with each letter is a
typewritten transcript.
Additional manuscript material regarding Lamb is located in several other collections
at the Ransom Center. One undated letter to Lamb from Samuel Taylor Coleridge is
located in Coleridge's papers. Other collections containing Lamb-related materials
are Harry Smith Bache, Edmund C. Blunden, E. V. Lucas, Joanna Richardson, and the
Robert Spradlin Collection of Charles Lamb Research Papers. Some editions of Charles
Lamb's works are located in the Library; the Performing Arts Prints Collection
contains an image of Lamb; and the Vertical File contains information about Lamb in
the Edmund Blunden and Christopher Morley files.
There are significant collections of Lamb manuscripts 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,
and the University of Kentucky. The Charles Lamb Society Library, which holds some
autograph items, is now housed in the Guildhall Library, London.
Container List
Series I. Works 1804-1825, undated
Works, 1804-1825, undated
1.1
Acrostic, handwritten manuscript, undated
2.1
Angel Help: A Legendary
Subject, manuscript in the hand of Emma Isola with handwritten
corrections by Lamb, undated
1.2
Biblical Question Game and Answers, handwritten questions on 32
individual cards with two cards of answers, undated
5
Commonplace book, handwritten manuscript with poems, epitaphs,
excerpts, acrostics, etc., 1804
2.6
Darby & Joan,
handwritten manuscript, undated
1.3
The Female Phaeton,
handwritten manuscript with pencil drawing, undated
1.4
I had a sense in dreams of a beauty
rare..., handwritten manuscript, undated
1.5
A Lesson in English Grammar and a Dictionary of Terms,
handwritten manuscript, undated
1.6
Love Will Come, handwritten
manuscript, undated
1.7
Manners of a London Waterman and His
Fare a Hundred Years Ago, handwritten manuscript,
1825
1.8
Manners of a Spruce London Mercer and
His Female Customer, a Hundred Years Ago,handwritten
mancusript, undated
2.1
On an Infant Dying as Soon as
Born, manuscript in the hand of Emma Isola with handwritten
corrections by Lamb, undated
2.2
Rectory House, Fornham, All Saints, Suffolk, handwritten
manuscript around a pencil drawing of a house by Emma Isola,
undated
2.3
The Rhedycinian Barbers,
handwritten manuscript, undated
2.4
Stanzas for Miss Daubney's Album, Dulwich, handwritten
manuscript, undated
2.5
Thoughts on Presents of Game,
handwritten manuscript, undated
2.6
Tweed Side, handwritten
manuscript, undated
2.7
Twenty Ninth of February,
handwritten manuscript, 1825
Lamb's Fair Copies, undated
2.8
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Love, handwritten copy, undated
2.9
Hazlitt, William. Lecture V. On Thomas and Cowper, handwritten
manuscript in Hazlitt's hand, with additions to the text by Lamb,
undated
2.10
Isola, Emma. Extracts in prose and verse, some in the hand of
Charles Lamb, undated
4.40
Kyd, Thomas. Hieronimo, handwritten manuscript, undated
3.1
Le Grice, Charles Valentine. Epigram
on Bloomfield, handwritten copy by Emma Isola with note by
Lamb ascribing it to Le Grice, undated
3.2
Marvell, Andrew. Bermudas,
handwritten copy, undated
3.3
Overbury, Thomas, Sir. A Fair and
Happy Milkmaid, handwritten copy, undated
3.4
Prior, Matthew. To a Child of
Quality, Five Years Old; the Author Forty, handwritten copy,
undated
1.3
Prior, Matthew. The Garland,
handwritten copy, undated
3.5
Strode, William. A Song in
Commendation of Music, handwritten copy, undated
3.6
Tickell, Thomas. Lucy and
Colin, handwritten copy with pencil drawing by Emma Isola,
undated
3.7
Waller, Edmund. Song,
handwritten manuscript, undated
3.8
Withers, George. The Muse, a
Consolation, handwritten copy, undated
Other, undated
3.9
Unidentified author. Photostat regarding Charles Lamb,
undated
Outgoing Correspondence 1801-1834
Lamb, Charles, 1801-1834
4.39
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1804 March 10
Hazlitt, Sarah
4.13
1815 October 19
4.27
1823 April 25
4.29
1825 January 20
4.30
1825 March 1
4.32
1825 April 18
4.28
1825 November 11
4.41
1830 May 24
4.42
Ollier, Charles, 1827 May 21
4.43
Payne, John Howard, 1823 January 23
4.38
Rickman, John, 1801 November
Wordsworth, Dorothy
3.12
1804 June 2
3.19
1805 June 14
4.23
1819 November 25
4.24
1821 January 8
4.20
Wordsworth, Mary, 1818 February 18
Wordsworth, William
3.10
1801 January 30
osf 1
1803 March 5
osf 1
1804 October 13; also addressed to Dorothy Wordsworth and
Mrs. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
3.13
1805 February 18
3.14
1805 February 19
3.15
1805 March 4
3.16
1805 March 21
3.17
1805 April 5
3.20
1805 September 28
3.21
1806 June 26
4.1
1806 December 11
4.2
1810 October 19
4.5
1814 August 9
4.6
1814 September 19
4.7
1814 December 28
4.8
1815 early
4.9
1815 April 7
4.10
1815 April 28
4.11
1815 August 9
4.14
1816 April 9
4.15
1816 April 26
4.16
1816 September 23
4.21
1819 April 26
4.22
1819 June 7
4.25
1822 March 20
4.26
1823 January
4.31
1825 April 6
4.33
1825 May
4.34
1826 September 6
4.35
1830 January 22
4.36
1833 end of May
4.37
1834 February 22
Lamb, Mary, 1803-1817
Hazlitt, Sarah
4.11
1815 August 20
4.17
1816 mid-November
4.18
1816 late
Wordsworth, Dorothy
3.12
1803 July 11
3.18
1805 May 7
3.22
1806 August 29
4.3
1810 November 13
4.4
1810 November 23
4.19
1817 November 21