Thomas De Quincey

Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859), English writer, born in Manchester. At the age of 17 he ran away from school to Wales and from there to London. Later, however, he studied at the University of Oxford. In 1809 he settled in Grasmere, where he joined the literary circle of the poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and Robert Southey and edited the Westmorland Gazette. Returning to London in 1820, he wrote Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821), a vivid description of his own experiences as an opium addict. He lived for 12 years (1828-40) in Edinburgh. In addition to many contributions in Blackwood's, Tait's Magazine, and Hogg's Instructor, his work includes Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts (1827), Suspiria de Profundis (1845), Joan of Arc (1847), The English Mailcoach (1849), and Autobiographic Sketches (1853).