She and Charles presided over a literary circle in London that included the poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, among others.

Mary learned about literature and writers from her father's stories of the times he had seen Samuel Johnson, who lived nearby, and his visitors.

Mary remembered seeing, at the age of five, the writer Oliver Goldsmith in the street, and she also witnessed David Garrick's acting.

[3] In the early 1790s, Elizabeth Lamb began to experience debilitating pain, possibly from arthritis, which ended up crippling her.

John's sister Sarah Lamb also lived with the family, and her care was spread between Charles and Mary.

[6] On 22 September 1796,[7] while preparing dinner, Mary became angry with her apprentice, roughly shoving the little girl out of her way and pushing her into another room.

She then fatally stabbed her mother in the chest, in full view of John and Sarah Lamb who were standing nearby.

[8] Later in the evening Mary was confined in a local mental facility called Fisher House, in Islington, a place found for her by Charles through a doctor friend of his.

Mary continued to work as a seamstress, and subscribed to the local lending libraries, as she was a voracious reader throughout her life.

[12] Charles's poem "Written on Christmas Day, 1797" demonstrated his feelings toward his sister, to whom he had made a lifelong commitment.

Sarah Lamb had died in 1797, and with John's death, Charles was able to bring Mary back to London to live with him.

[15] In his essay "Mackery End", Charles wrote that "We are both of us inclined to be a little too positive...But where we have differed upon moral points; upon something proper to be done, or let alone; whatever heat of opposition, or steadiness of conviction, I set out with, I am sure always, in the long run, to be brought over to her way of thinking."

[16] In 1801, the Lambs formed a literary and social circle that included minor artists and writers, and occasional visits from Charles's friends Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth.

[17] At this time, Mary also met two of the best female friends of her life, Sarah Stoddart and Dorothy Wordsworth.

Mary began writing her collection of tales Mrs. Leicester's School in 1808, publishing it at the end of the year, but the original title page stated the date as 1809.

[25] In December 1814, Mary wrote an article titled "On Needle-work", published in the New British Lady's Magazine the following year under the pseudonym Sempronia.

[2] At this time his and Mary's literary gatherings grew in importance,[28] with new members joining the circle including Thomas Noon Talfourd and Bryan Procter.

[31] In the later 1820s Mary's mental illness progressed, her periods of dementia lasting longer and becoming deeper, while new symptoms of depression and detachment appeared.

He said that Mary was "remarkable for the sweetness of her disposition, the clearness of her understanding, and the gentle wisdom of all her acts and words", and that "To a friend in any difficulty she was the most comfortable of advisers, the wisest of consolers."

[44] Charles and Mary Lamb's story was explored by Dorothy Parker and Ross Evans in their 1949 play The Coast of Illyria.

[46] She is also the subject of a 2004 biographical study by British writer Kathy Watson, The Devil Kissed Her,[47] and a 2005 biography by Susan Tyler Hitchcock, Mad Mary Lamb: Lunacy And Murder In Literary London.

She appears in the first chapter of Mad, Bad, & Sad, Lisa Appignanesi's book on women and mental illness.

[48] The Lambs appear in one episode of Sue Limb's radio comedy The Wordsmiths at Gorsemere, a pastiche of the poet William Wordsworth and his circle at Grasmere.