Robert Morrison

A masterful biography of one of England’s most notorious literary figures

Author of the scandalous Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, Thomas De Quincey (1785–1859) has long lacked a full-fledged biography. His friendships with leading poets and men of letters in the Romantic and Victorian periods—including William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge—have long placed him at the center of nineteenth-century literature studies. His writing was a tremendous influence on Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, and William S. Burroughs.

De Quincey is a topical figure for other reasons, too: a self-mythologizing autobiographer whose attitudes to drug-induced creativity and addiction strike highly resonant chords for a contemporary readership. Robert Morrison’s biography passionately argues for the critical importance and enduring value of this neglected icon of English literature.

• The New Yorker

  “Artful. A finely mapped study of an eccentric character.” 

• Wall Street Journal

  “Superb. I can’t imagine anybody ever needing to do the job again. Mr. Morrison gives us an admirably lucid tour through the long, chaotic shambles of De Quincey’s life.” 

• Michael Dirda, Washington Post

  “A lucid, deeply researched biography. If you’ve never read Thomas De Quincey, you should. Afterwards, when fascinated by the man, as you will be, turn immediately to this excellent, detailed and often harrowing biography.”