Thomas Penson De Quincey (; 15 August 17858 December 1859) was an English writer, essayist, and literary critic, best known for his ''

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater ''Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'' (1821) is an autobiographical account written by Thomas De Quincey, about his laudanum addiction and its effect on his life. The ''Confessions'' was "the first major work De Quincey published and the one ...

'' (1821). Many scholars suggest that in publishing this work De Quincey inaugurated the tradition of addiction literature in the West.

Life and work

Child and student

Thomas Penson De Quincey was born at 86 Cross Street,

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, Lancashire. His father, a successful merchant with an interest in literature, died when De Quincey was quite young. Soon after his birth, the family went to ''The Farm'' and then later to Greenheys, a larger country house in

Chorlton-on-Medlock Chorlton-on-Medlock or Chorlton-upon-Medlock is an inner city area of Manchester, England. Historically in Lancashire, Chorlton-on-Medlock is bordered to the north by the River Medlock, which runs immediately south of Manchester city centre ...

near Manchester. In 1796, three years after the death of his father, Thomas Quincey, his mother – the erstwhile Elizabeth Penson – took the name "De Quincey".Morrison, Robert. "Thomas De Quincey: Chronology" TDQ Homepage. Kingston: Queen's University, 2013. That same year, De Quincey's mother moved to Bath and enrolled him at King Edward's School. He was a weak and sickly child. His youth was spent in solitude, and when his elder brother, William, came home, he wrought havoc in the quiet surroundings. De Quincey's mother was a woman of strong character and intelligence but seems to have inspired more awe than affection in her children. She brought them up strictly, taking De Quincey out of school after three years because she was afraid he would become big-headed, and sending him to an inferior school at Wingfield, Wiltshire. Around this time, in 1799, De Quincey first read ''

Lyrical Ballads ''Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems'' is a collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published in 1798 and generally considered to have marked the beginning of the English Romantic movement in literatu ...

'' by

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

and

Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake ...

. In 1800, De Quincey, aged 15, was ready for the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

; his scholarship was far in advance of his years. "That boy could harangue an Athenian mob better than you or I could address an English one", his master at Bath had said. He was sent to

Manchester Grammar School The Manchester Grammar School (MGS) in Manchester, England, is the largest independent school (UK), independent day school for boys in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1515 as a Grammar school#free tuition, free grammar school next to Manchester C ...

, in order that after three years' stay he might obtain a scholarship to Brasenose College, Oxford, but he took flight after 19 months. Bust of Thomas de Quincey

His first plan had been to reach Wordsworth, whose ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798) had consoled him in fits of depression and had awakened in him a deep reverence for the poet. But for that De Quincey was too timid, so he made his way to Chester, where his mother dwelt, in the hope of seeing a sister; he was caught by the older members of the family, but, through the efforts of his uncle, Colonel Penson, received the promise of a guinea (£1.05) a week to carry out his later project of a solitary tramp through Wales. While on his journey around Wales and Snowdon, he would avoid sleeping in

inns Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...

to save what little money he had and instead went lodging with cottagers or slept in a tent he had made himself. He sustained himself by eating blackberries and

rose hips The rose hip or rosehip, also called rose haw and rose hep, is the accessory fruit of the various species of rose plant. It is typically red to orange, but ranges from dark purple to black in some species. Rose hips begin to form after pollinat ...

; only rarely getting enough proper food from the goodwill of strangers. From July to November 1802, De Quincey lived as a wayfarer. He soon lost his guinea by ceasing to keep his family informed of his whereabouts and had difficulty making ends meet. Still, apparently fearing pursuit, he borrowed some money and travelled to London, where he tried to borrow more. Having failed, he lived close to starvation rather than return to his family.Eaton, pp. 57–87. Fox Ghyll

Discovered by chance by his friends, De Quincey was brought home and finally allowed to go to Worcester College, Oxford, on a reduced income. Here, we are told, "he came to be looked upon as a strange being who associated with no one." In 1804, while at Oxford, he began the occasional use of opium. He completed his studies, but failed to take the oral examination leading to a degree; he left the university without graduating. He became an acquaintance of Coleridge and Wordsworth, having already sought out

Charles Lamb Charles Lamb (10 February 1775 – 27 December 1834) was an English essayist, poet, and antiquarian, best known for his '' Essays of Elia'' and for the children's book '' Tales from Shakespeare'', co-authored with his sister, Mary Lamb (1764� ...

in London. His acquaintance with Wordsworth led to his settling in 1809 at Grasmere, in the Lake District. He lived for ten years in

Dove Cottage Dove Cottage is a house on the edge of Grasmere in the Lake District of England. It is best known as the home of the poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy Wordsworth from December 1799 to May 1808, where they spent over eight years of ...

, which Wordsworth had occupied and which is now a popular tourist attraction, and for another five years at

Foxghyll Country House, Ambleside Fox Ghyll or Foxghyll, earlier Fox Gill, is a historic house near Ambleside in Cumbria, England, and is a Grade II listed building. It is a Regency building which seems to have been added to a much older house that was on the site. It was the home ...

. De Quincey was married in 1816, and soon after, having no money left, he took up literary work in earnest. His wife Margaret bore him eight children before her death in 1837. Three of De Quincey's daughters survived him. One of his sons, Paul Frederick de Quincey (1828–1894), emigrated to New Zealand.

Journalist

In July 1818 De Quincey became editor of '' The Westmorland Gazette'', a

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...

newspaper published in Kendal, after its first editor had been dismissed. He was unreliable at meeting deadlines, and in June 1819 the proprietors complained about "their dissatisfaction with the lack of 'regular communication between the Editor and the Printer'", and he resigned in November 1819. Online edition available by subscription De Quincey's political sympathies tended towards the

right Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical ...

. He was "a champion of aristocratic privilege," reserved " Jacobin" as his highest term of opprobrium, held reactionary views on the

Peterloo massacre The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Fifteen people died when cavalry charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to demand the reform of parliament ...

and the

Sepoy rebellion ''Sepoy'' () was the Persian-derived designation originally given to a professional Indian infantryman, traditionally armed with a musket, in the armies of the Mughal Empire. In the 18th century, the French East India Company and its oth ...

, on

Catholic Emancipation Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restricti ...

and the enfranchisement of the common people.

Translator and essayist

In 1821 he went to London to dispose of some translations from German authors, but was persuaded first to write and publish an account of his opium experiences, which that year appeared in '' The London Magazine''. This new sensation eclipsed Lamb's ''

Essays of Elia ''Essays of Elia'' is a collection of essays written by Charles Lamb; it was first published in book form in 1823, with a second volume, ''Last Essays of Elia'', issued in 1833 by the publisher Edward Moxon. The essays in the collection first be ...

'', which were then appearing in the same periodical. The ''

'' were soon published in book form. De Quincey then made literary acquaintances.

Thomas Hood Thomas Hood (23 May 1799 – 3 May 1845) was an English poet, author and humorist, best known for poems such as " The Bridge of Sighs" and " The Song of the Shirt". Hood wrote regularly for ''The London Magazine'', '' Athenaeum'', and ''Punch' ...

found the shrinking author "at home in a German ocean of literature, in a storm, flooding all the floor, the tables and the chairs – billows of books …" De Quincey was famous for his conversation; Richard Woodhouse wrote of the "depth and ''reality'', as I may so call it, of his knowledge … His conversation appeared like the elaboration of a mine of results …" From this time on, De Quincey maintained himself by contributing to various magazines. He soon exchanged London and the Lakes for

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

, the nearby village of

Polton Polton is a village located in Lasswade parish, Midlothian Midlothian (; gd, Meadhan Lodainn) is a historic county, registration county, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian li ...

, and

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

; he spent the remainder of his life in Scotland. In the 1830s he is listed as living at 1 Forres Street, a large townhouse on the edge of the Moray Estate in

. '' Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine'' and its rival '' Tait's Magazine'' received numerous contributions. ''

Suspiria de Profundis ''Suspiria de profundis'' (a Latin phrase meaning "sighs from the depths") is a collection of essays in the form of prose poems by English writer Thomas De Quincey, first published in 1845. An examination of the process of memory as influenced by ...

'' (1845) appeared in Blackwood's, as did ''

The English Mail-Coach ''The English Mail-Coach'' is an essay by the English author Thomas De Quincey. A "three-part masterpiece" and "one of his most magnificent works," it first appeared in 1849 in ''Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine'', in the October (Part I) and Dec ...

'' (1849). ''Joan of Arc'' (1847) was published in ''Tait's''. Between 1835 and 1849, ''Tait's'' published a series of De Quincey's reminiscences of Wordsworth, Coleridge,

Robert Southey Robert Southey ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a ra ...

and other figures among the

Lake Poets The Lake Poets were a group of English poets who all lived in the Lake District of England, United Kingdom, in the first half of the nineteenth century. As a group, they followed no single "school" of thought or literary practice then known. They ...

– a series that taken together constitutes one of his most important works.

Financial pressures

Along with his opium addiction, debt was one of the primary constraints of De Quincey's adult life. De Quincey came into his patrimony at the age of 21, when he received £2,000 from his late father's estate. He was unwisely generous with his funds, making loans that could not or would not be repaid, including a £300 loan to Coleridge in 1807. After leaving Oxford without a degree, he made an attempt to study law, but desultorily and unsuccessfully; he had no steady income and spent large sums on books (he was a lifelong collector). By the 1820s he was constantly in financial difficulties. More than once in his later years, De Quincey was forced to seek protection from arrest in the debtors' sanctuary of Holyrood in Edinburgh. (At the time,

Holyrood Park Holyrood Park (also called the Queen's Park or King's Park depending on the reigning monarch's gender) is a royal park in central Edinburgh, Scotland about to the east of Edinburgh Castle. It is open to the public. It has an array of hills, loc ...

formed a debtors' sanctuary; people could not be arrested for debt within those bounds. The debtors who took sanctuary there could emerge only on Sundays, when arrests for debt were not allowed.) Yet De Quincey's money problems persisted; he got into further difficulties for debts he incurred within the sanctuary. His financial situation improved only later in his life. His mother's death in 1846 brought him an income of £200 per year. When his daughters matured, they managed his budget more responsibly than he ever had himself.

Medical issues

De Quincey suffered neuralgic facial pain, "

trigeminal neuralgia Trigeminal neuralgia (TN or TGN), also called Fothergill disease, tic douloureux, or trifacial neuralgia is a long-term pain disorder that affects the trigeminal nerve, the nerve responsible for sensation in the face and motor functions such as ...

" – "attacks of piercing pain in the face, of such severity that they sometimes drive the victim to suicide." He reports using opium first in 1804 to relieve his neuralgia. Thus, as with many addicts, De Quincey's opium addiction may have had a "self-medication" aspect for real physical illnesses, as well as a psychological aspect. Grave of Thomas De Quincey

By his own testimony, De Quincey 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 first commenced daily usage, in response to illness and his grief over the death of Wordsworth's young daughter Catherine. During 1813–1819 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 use were literarily unproductive. He died in his rooms on Lothian Street in south Edinburgh and is buried in St Cuthbert's Churchyard at the west end of Princes Street. His stone, in the southwest section of the churchyard on a west-facing wall, is plain and says nothing of his work. His residence on Lothian Street was demolished in the 1970s to make way for the Bristo Square landscaping and inner dual carriageway around the student centre.

Collected works

During the final decade of his life, De Quincey labored on a collected edition of his works.

Ticknor and Fields Ticknor and Fields was an American publishing company based in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded as a bookstore in 1832, the business would publish many 19th century American authors including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, ...

, a

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

publishing house, first proposed such a collection and solicited De Quincey's approval and co-operation. It was only when De Quincey, a chronic procrastinator, failed to answer repeated letters from James Thomas Fields that the American publisher proceeded independently, reprinting the author's works from their original magazine appearances. Twenty-two volumes of ''De Quincey's Writings'' were issued from 1851 to 1859. The existence of the American edition prompted a corresponding British edition. Since the spring of 1850, De Quincey had been a regular contributor to an Edinburgh periodical called ''Hogg's Weekly Instructor'', whose publisher,

James Hogg James Hogg (1770 – 21 November 1835) was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both Scots and English. As a young man he worked as a shepherd and farmhand, and was largely self-educated through reading. He was a friend of many ...

, undertook to publish ''Selections Grave and Gay from Writings Published and Unpublished by Thomas De Quincey''. De Quincey edited and revised his works for the Hogg edition; the 1856 second edition of the ''Confessions'' was prepared for inclusion in ''Selections Grave and Gay…''. The first volume of that edition appeared in May 1853, and the fourteenth and last in January 1860, a month after the author's death. Both of these were multi-volume collections, yet made no pretense to be complete. Scholar and editor David Masson attempted a more definitive collection: ''The Works of Thomas De Quincey'' appeared in fourteen volumes in 1889 and 1890. Yet De Quincey's writings were so voluminous and widely dispersed that further collections followed: two volumes of ''The Uncollected Writings'' (1890), and two volumes of ''Posthumous Works'' (1891–93). De Quincey's 1803 diary was published in 1927. Another volume, ''New Essays by De Quincey'', appeared in 1966.

Influence

His immediate influence extended to

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

, Fitz Hugh Ludlow,

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited ...

and Nikolai Gogol, but even major 20th-century writers such as

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...

admired and claimed to be partly influenced by his work. Berlioz also loosely based his '' Symphonie fantastique'' on ''Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'', drawing on the theme of the internal struggle with one's self. Dario Argento used De Quincey's ''Suspiria'', particularly "Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow", as an inspiration for his "Three Mothers" trilogy of films, which include '' Suspiria'', ''

Inferno Inferno may refer to: * Hell, an afterlife place of suffering * Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire Film * ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film * Inferno (1953 film), ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker * Inferno (1973 fi ...

'' and ''

The Mother of Tears ''Mother of Tears'' ( it, La Terza madre, literally ''The Third Mother'') is a 2007 supernatural horror film written and directed by Dario Argento, and starring Asia Argento, Daria Nicolodi, Moran Atias, Udo Kier and Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni. Th ...

''. This influence carried over into

Luca Guadagnino Luca Guadagnino (; born 10 August 1971) is an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. His films are often characterized by their emotional complexities, sensuality and sumptuous visuals. He is also known for his frequent collaboration ...

's 2018 version of the film. Shelby Hughes created ''Jynxies Natural Habitat'', an online archive of stamp art on

glassine Glassine is a smooth and glossy paper that is air, water, and grease resistant. It is usually available in densities between . It is translucent unless dyes are added to color it or make it opaque. It is manufactured by supercalendering: after ...

heroin bags, under the pseudonym "Dequincey Jinxey", in reference to De Quincey. She also used the pseudonym in interviews related to the archive. De Quincey's accomplished mastery of Greek was widely known and respected in the 1800s. Treadwell Walden, Episcopal priest and sometime rector of St. Paul's Church, Boston, quotes a letter from De Quincey's ''Autobiographic Sketches'' in support of his 1881 treatise about the mistranslation of the word metanoia into "repent" by most English translations of the Bible.

Major publications

* ''

'' (1821) * '' On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth'' (1823)
''Walladmor''
(1825) * ''

On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts "On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts" is an essay by Thomas De Quincey first published in 1827 in ''Blackwood's Magazine''. The essay is a fictional, satirical account of an address made to a gentleman's club concerning the aesthetic appr ...

'' (1827)
''Klosterheim, or the Masque''
(1832) * '' Lake Reminiscences'' (1834–40)
''Revolt of the Tartars''
(1837) * ''The Logic of Political Economy'' (1844) * ''

'' (1845) * ''

'' (1849) * ''

Autobiographic Sketches ''Autobiographic Sketches'', sometimes referred to as the ''Autobiography'' of Thomas De Quincey, is a work first published in 1853. Origins “Sketches” suggests the mode of composition of this work. De Quincey did not deliberately plan and for ...

'' (1853)

References

External links

"Drugs and Words"
Laura Marsh, ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

'', 15 February 2011.
"The fascinating life of an English writer, essayist and 'opium eater'"

Michael Dirda Michael Dirda (born 1948) is a book critic for the ''Washington Post''. He has been a Fulbright Fellow and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993. Career Having studied at Oberlin College for his undergraduate degree in 1970, Dirda took an M.A. in 1974 a ...

, ''Washington Post'', 30 December 2010 * Archival material at
Finding aid to De Quincey Family papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Thomas De Quincey elibrary
PDFs of ''Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'', ''On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts'', and ''The Literature of Knowledge and the Literature of Power''
Thomas De Quincey Homepage
maintained by Dr Robert Morrison * * * *
Works by Thomas De Quincey
at

Hathi Trust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:De Quincey, Thomas 1785 births 1859 deaths English essayists English male journalists English non-fiction writers 19th-century English novelists English translators Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford Writers from Manchester People associated with Edinburgh People educated at Manchester Grammar School People educated at King Edward's School, Bath British male essayists English male novelists 19th-century English male writers 19th-century essayists 19th-century British translators People from Grasmere (village)