Thomas De Quincey (1785 - 1859)
Thomas Penson De Quincey ( / ˈ t ɒ m ə s d ə ˈ k w ɪ n s i / ; [ 1 ] 15 August 1785 – 8 December 1859) was an English essayist, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821). [ 2 ] [ 3 ] Many scholars suggest that in publishing this work De Quincey inaugurated the tradition of addiction literature in the West. Medical Issues: A number of medical practitioners have speculated on the physical ailments that inspired and underlay De Quincey's resort to opium, and searched the corpus of his autobiographical works for evidence. One possibility is "a mild … case of infantile paralysis" that he may have contracted from Wordsworth's children. [ 28 ] De Quincey certainly had intestinal problems, and problems with his vision – which could have been related: "uncorrected myopic astigmatism … manifests itself as digestive problems in men." [ 29 ] De Quincey also suffered neuralgic facial pain, "trigeminal neuralgia" – "attack...