Mary Anne Lamb was an English writer of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. She is best known for her collaboration with her brother Charles Lamb on Tales from Shakespeare, published in 1807, which became an influential retelling of Shakespeare's plays for a general audience. Lamb's life was marked by significant personal hardship. In 1796, at age 31, she experienced a severe mental health crisis during which she fatally stabbed her mother. Following this incident, she was confined to mental facilities for most of the remainder of her life. Despite these challenges, Lamb remained an active participant in London's literary circles. She and Charles presided over a salon that attracted notable Romantic-era poets and writers, including William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, making her an important figure in the cultural life of her time.