Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859): Writer, essayist and literary critic, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821). De Quincey was the son of a successful merchant and was born in Manchester. A brilliant scholar as a child, his schooling was erratic, and though he entered Worcester College, Oxford in 1803, he did not take his degree. A passionate admirer of Wordsworth and Coleridge, he lived at Wordsworth’s former home, Dove Cottage, Grasmere, from 1809–1819, when he came to know Southey. De Quincey married Margaret Simpson (d. 1837), the daughter of a Rydal famer in 1817, and the couple had eight children. While he lived at Dove Cottage, he was forced to devote himself to literary work to try and earn a living, as the inheritance he received in 1806 was soon spent. His political views were reactionary, and he briefly edited the Westmorland Gazette, the Tory paper in Kendal in 1818–1819. De Quincey’s life was blighted by opium addiction and debt. He moved to London in 1821 and began to regularly contribute to literary periodicals, achieving huge success when Confessions of an English Opium-Eater appeared initially in the London Magazine. De Quincey soon moved to Scotland, where he lived for the rest of his life. Between 1835 and 1849 he published a series of important memoirs of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey and their circles.