Thomas De Quincey, English Essayist

Thomas Penson De Quincey (August 15, 1785 - December 8, 1859) was an English essayist, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821). He first used opium in 1804 to relieve his neuralgia. He used it for pleasure, but no more than weekly, through 1812. It was in 1813 that he commenced daily usage, in response to illness and his grief over the death of Wordsworth's young daughter Catherine. In the periods of 1813-16 and 1817-19 his daily dose was very high, and resulted in the sufferings recounted in the final sections of his Confessions. For the rest of his life his opium use fluctuated between extremes. He took enormous doses in 1843, but late in 1848 he went for 61 days with none at all. There are many theories surrounding the effects of opium on literary creation, and notably, his periods of low usage were literarily unproductive. He died in 1859 at the age of 74

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Addict Addiction Confessions Drug Essayist Opiate Opium Quincey

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