Lambda entered Python in 1993:

  changeset:   1369:89e1e5d9ccbf
  branch:      legacy-trunk
  user:        Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org>
  date:        Tue Oct 26 17:58:25 1993 +0000
  summary:     * compile.[ch]: support for lambda()

so that's only two years after it was first released, and before it was 1.0. The code was user-contributed, but given the timing and the recollections at http://python-history.blogspot.com/2009/04/origins-of-python... I can't agree that the historical record is compatible with "dragged kicking and screaming to lambda."

(See also http://legacy.python.org/search/hypermail/python-1994q2/0705... for his views on the topic from 1994.)

Van Rossum doesn't think lambda is important, and would rather not have it in Lisp. He wanted to remove it for Python 3, but there was large opposition to that. See his viewpoint from 2005 at http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=98196 . After a large debate about alternatives (see https://wiki.python.org/moin/AlternateLambdaSyntax ) he agreed to keep lambda in 2006 at https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2006-February/0... .