De Quincey, Thomas. English essayist. born in Manchester in 1785. His father, Thomas Quincey (not de Quincey), was a merchant, and left his family well provided for. De Quincey was first educated at Salford and at Bath, and afterwards at Winkfield and the Manchester grammar school, from which he ran away. He subsequently went through the adventures and privations which he described in the "Confessions of an English Opium Eater." In 1803, he went up to Worcester College, Oxford, which he left without a degree. He soon after became acquainted with Coleridge and Wordsworth, took a cottage at Grasmere, and became one of the famous Lake scholars. Here he remained for many years, occasionally visiting London and Edinburgh. In 1830, he removed his wife and eight children to the latter place, and lived there until his wife's death in 1837. He had acquired the habit of taking opium by using it to cure an attack of neuralgia, and so greatly did it grow upon him that he was known to take as many as 12,000 drops, equal to ten wineglasses, in a day. He as engaged in preparing fourteen volumes of his works for the press within a few days of his death. Besides the "Opium Eater," the following works may be mentioned: "Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts," "Suspiria de Profundis," "The English Mail Coach," and "A Vision of Sudden Death." Died 1859.

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