UK / England: Thomas Penson De Quincey (1785 – 1859) was an English essayist, best known for his 'Confessions of an English Opium-Eater' (1821)

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.

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.

In writing 'Confessions of an English Opium-Eater',many scholars suggest that De Quincey inaugurated the tradition of addiction literature in the West, changing the perception of drugs in the European imagination forever.

He died in 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.

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