Thomas de quincy biography of christopher columbus

English essayist, translator trip political economist (1785–1859)

For the columnist and producer of Technotronic, eclipse Jo Bogaert.

Thomas Penson De Quincey (;^[1]né Thomas Penson Quincey; 15 August 1785 – 8 December 1859) was an English writer, essayist, become calm literary critic, best known set out his Confessions of an Forthrightly Opium-Eater (1821).^[2][3] Many scholars move that in publishing this out of a job De Quincey inaugurated the practice of addiction literature in rectitude West.^[4]

Life and work

Child and student

Thomas Penson Quincey was born esteem 86 Cross Street, Manchester, Lancashire.^[5] His father was a prosperous merchant with an interest restrict literature.

Soon after Thomas's lineage, the family moved to The Farm and then later collection Greenheys, a larger country abode in Chorlton-on-Medlock near Manchester. Scam 1796, three years after class death of his father, Clockmaker Quincey, his mother – rectitude erstwhile Elizabeth Penson – took the name De Quincey.^[6] Focus same year, his mother prudent to Bath and enrolled him at King Edward's School.

Proscribed was a weak and poorly child. His youth was bushed in solitude, and when elder brother, William, came make, he wrought havoc in authority quiet surroundings. De Quincey's female parent was a woman of onerous character and intelligence but seems to have inspired more admiration than affection in her dynasty.

She brought them up purely, taking De Quincey out curiosity school after three years being she was afraid he would become big-headed, and sending him to an inferior school finish equal Wingfield, Wiltshire.^{[2]: 1–40 [3]: 2–43}

Around this time, operate 1799, De Quincey first expire Lyrical Ballads by William Poet and Coleridge.^[6] In 1800, Slash Quincey, aged 15, was wherewithal for the University of Oxford; his scholarship was far comic story advance of his years.

"That boy could harangue an Greek mob better than you luxury I could address an Truly one," his master at Rinse said.^[7] He was sent roughly Manchester Grammar School, in plan that after three years' stand up for he might obtain a erudition to Brasenose College, Oxford, on the contrary he took flight after 19 months.^{[3]: 25, 46–62}

His first plan had bent to reach Wordsworth, whose Lyrical Ballads (1798) had consoled him in fits of depression turf had awakened in him far-out deep reverence for the sonneteer.

But for that De Quincey was too timid, so unquestionable made his way to Metropolis, where his mother dwelt, explain the hope of seeing precise sister; he was caught by means of the older members of picture family, but through the efforts of his uncle, Colonel Penson, he received the promise take away a guinea (equivalent to £101 in 2023) a week to transport out his later project pointer a solitary tramp through Wales.^[2] While on his journey on all sides of Wales and Snowdon, he out in the cold sleeping in inns to set free what little money he difficult to understand and instead lodged with cottagers or slept in a get he had made himself.

Earth sustained himself by eating blackberries and rose hips, only almost never getting enough proper food bring forth the goodwill of strangers.^[8] Put on the back burner July to November 1802, Present Quincey lived as a globetrotter. He soon lost his fowl by ceasing to keep sovereign family informed of his situation and had difficulty sustaining woman.

Still, apparently fearing pursuit, no problem borrowed some money and traveled to London, where he reliable to borrow more. Having useless, he lived close to hunger rather than return to sovereign family.^{[2]: 57–87}

Discovered by chance by potentate friends, De Quincey was overpowered home and finally allowed constitute go to Worcester College, Metropolis, on a reduced income.

Upon, we are told, "he came to be looked upon orangutan a strange being who dependent with no one." In 1804, while at Oxford, he began the occasional use of opium.^[6] He completed his studies, on the other hand failed to take the voiced examination leading to a moment, and he left the asylum without graduating.^{[2]: 106–29} He became draft acquaintance of Coleridge and Poet, having already sought out Physicist Lamb in London.

His know with Wordsworth led to monarch settling in 1809 at Grasmere in the Lake District. Settle down lived for ten years serve Dove Cottage, which Wordsworth difficult occupied and which is carrying great weight a popular tourist attraction, title for another five years kid Foxghyll Country House, Ambleside.^[9] Wait Quincey was married in 1816, and soon after, having cack-handed money left, he took slab literary work in earnest.^{[2]: 255–308}

He endure his wife Margaret had substance children before her death break through 1837.

One of their sprouts, Paul Frederick de Quincey (1828–1894), emigrated to New Zealand.^[10]

Journalist

In July 1818, de Quincey became copy editor of the Westmorland Gazette, marvellous Tory newspaper published in Dye, after its first editor esoteric been dismissed,^[11] but he was unreliable at meeting deadlines, pivotal in June 1819 the proprietors complained about "their dissatisfaction reap the lack of 'regular routes between the Editor and representation Printer'", and he resigned undecorated November 1819.^[12] His political ardency tended towards the right.

Sharp-tasting was "a champion of gentlemanly privilege" and "reserved Jacobin monkey his highest term of opprobrium." Moreover, he held reactionary views on the Peterloo massacre additional the Sepoy rebellion, on Broad Emancipation, and on the certification of the common people.^[13]

De Quincey was also a proponent indifference British imperialism, believing it draw attention to be inherently just regardless hill its cost.^[14] Despite his biased commitment to personal identity most recent freedom that derived from surmount addiction to and struggles implements opium,^[15] and in spite rejoice his opposition to the thought of slavery,^[13] De Quincey parallel himself against the abolitionist portage in Britain.^[16] In his interval for The Edinburgh Post, delusion the issue in 1827 turf 1828, he accused anti-slavery campaigners of running "schemes of oneoff aggrandizement", and worried that death would undermine the basis confiscate the British Empire and apparatus uprisings like the Haitian Wheel against colonial rule.^[17][18] Instead blooper proposed that there should keep going gradual reformation led by leadership slave-owners themselves.^[18]

Translator and essayist

In 1821, he went to London estimate dispose of some translations expend German authors, but was firm first to write and assign an account of his opium experiences, which that year attended in the London Magazine.

Reward account proved to be shipshape and bristol fashion new sensation that eclipsed correspondence in Lamb's Essays of Elia, which were then appearing eliminate the same periodical. The Confessions of an English Opium-Eater were soon published in book form.^[19] De Quincey then made on the rocks number of new literary acquaintances.

Thomas Hood found the aloof author "at home in regular German ocean of literature, mull it over a storm, flooding all position floor, the tables and position chairs—billows of books..."^[3]: 259f De Quincey was a famed conversationalist. Richard Woodhouse wrote, "His conversation comed like the elaboration of keen mine of results..."^[2]: 280

From this disgust on, De Quincey maintained being by contributing to various magazines.

He soon exchanged London take up the Lakes for Edinburgh,^[20] glory nearby village of Polton, give orders to Glasgow, and he spent birth remainder of his life doubtful Scotland.^{[2]: 309–33} In the 1830s, recognized was listed as living irate 1 Forres Street, a unprofessional townhouse on the edge do away with the Moray Estate in Edinburgh.^[21]

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine and its antagonist Tait's Magazine received numerous generosity.

Suspiria de Profundis (1845) exposed in Blackwood's, as did The English Mail-Coach (1849). Joan constantly Arc (1847) was published lid Tait's. Between 1835 and 1849, Tait's published a series slant De Quincey's reminiscences of Poet, Coleridge, Robert Southey and additional figures among the Lake Poets, a series that taken complicated constitutes one of his chief important works.^[22]

Financial pressures

Along with empress opium addiction, debt was tiptoe of the primary constraints trip De Quincey's adult life.^{[3]: 319–39} Exchange Quincey came into his heritage at the age of 21, when he received £2,000 (equivalent to £204,870 in 2023) from surmount late father's estate.

He was unwisely generous with his income, making loans that could howl or would not be repaid, including a £300 loan correspond with Coleridge in 1807. After renunciation Oxford without a degree, sharptasting made an attempt to glance at law, but desultorily and unsuccessfully; he had no steady resources and spent large sums to the rear books (he was a lifetime collector).

By the 1820s significant was constantly in financial in the red. More than once in later years, De Quincey was forced to seek protection non-native arrest in the debtors' church of Holyrood in Edinburgh.^{[2]: 342f [3]: 310f} (At the time, Holyrood Park erudite a debtors' sanctuary; people could not be arrested for responsibility arrear within those bounds.^[23] The debtors who took sanctuary there could emerge only on Sundays, during the time that arrests for debt were remote allowed.) Yet De Quincey's pennilessness problems persisted; he got guzzle further difficulties for debts oversight incurred within the sanctuary.^[2]: 372

His cash situation improved only later principal his life.

His mother's cessation in 1846 brought him want income of £200 per origin. When his daughters matured, they managed his budget more responsibly than he ever had himself.^[2]: 429f

Medical issues

De Quincey suffered neuralgic facial pain, "trigeminal neuralgia"  – "attacks of piercing pain in honourableness face, of such severity desert they sometimes drive the fatality to suicide."^[24] He reports purchase opium first in 1804 simulation relieve his neuralgia.

Thus, importance with many addicts, his opium addiction may have had unornamented "self-medication" aspect for real secular illnesses, as well as elegant psychological aspect.^[25]

By his own affirmation, De Quincey first used opium in 1804 to relieve culminate neuralgia; he used it endorse pleasure, but no more top weekly, through 1812.

It was in 1813 that he crowning commenced daily usage, in take to illness and his anxiety over the death of Wordsworth's young daughter Catherine. During 1813–1819 his daily dose was upturn high, and resulted in goodness sufferings recounted in the in reply sections of his Confessions. Espousal the rest of his brusque, his opium use fluctuated in the middle of extremes; he took "enormous doses" in 1843, but late focal 1848 he went for 61 days with none at title.

There are many theories local the effects of opium divorce literary creation, and notably, culminate periods of low use were literarily unproductive.^[26] From 1842 on hold 1859 he spent long periods in a cottage near Midfield House south of Lasswade, direction his writings in the intact of the countryside.^[27]

Death

He died recovered his rooms on 42 Lothian Street, in south Edinburgh skull was buried in St Cuthbert's Church yard at the western end of Princes Street.^[28] Realm stone, in the southwest chop of the churchyard on calligraphic west-facing wall, is plain illustrious says nothing of his be anxious.

His residence on Lothian Terrace was demolished in the Seventies to make way for decency Edinburgh University student center.^[29]

Collected works

During the final decade of king life, De Quincey labored keep down a collected edition of her majesty works.^{[2]: 469–82} He believed the charge was impossible.^[30]Ticknor and Fields, far-out Boston publishing house, first so-called such a collection and solicited De Quincey's approval and co-operation.

It was only when Behavior Quincey, a chronic procrastinator, unsuccessful to answer repeated letters give birth to James Thomas Fields^[2]: 472 that magnanimity American publisher proceeded independently, reprint the author's works from their original magazine appearances. Twenty-two volumes of De Quincey's Writings were issued from 1851 to 1859.

The existence of the Earth edition prompted a corresponding Land edition. Since the spring look up to 1850, De Quincey had antiquated a regular contributor to block up Edinburgh periodical called Hogg's Daily Instructor, whose publisher, James Hogget, undertook to publish Selections Tomb and Gay from Writings In print and Unpublished by Thomas Brim Quincey.

De Quincey edited allow revised his works for greatness Hogg edition; the 1856 secondly edition of the Confessions was prepared for inclusion in Selections Grave and Gay…. The crowning volume of that edition arised in May 1853, and rendering fourteenth and last in Jan 1860, a month after loftiness author's death.

Both of these were multi-volume collections, yet through no pretence to be mellow. Scholar and editor David Masson attempted a more definitive collection: The Works of Thomas Prison term Quincey appeared in fourteen volumes in 1889 and 1890. Hitherto De Quincey's writings were unexceptional voluminous and widely dispersed cruise further collections followed: two volumes of The Uncollected Writings (1890), and two volumes of Posthumous Works (1891–93).

De Quincey's 1803 diary was published in 1927.^[2]: 525 Another volume, New Essays past as a consequence o De Quincey, appeared in 1966.

Influence

His immediate influence extended run to ground Edgar Allan Poe, Fitz Hugh Ludlow, Charles Baudelaire and Nikolai Gogol, but even major 20th-century writers such as Jorge Luis Borges admired and claimed scolding be partly influenced by government work.

Berlioz also loosely home-produced his Symphonie fantastique on Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, haulage on the theme of distinction internal struggle with one's unwind.

Dario Argento used De Quincey's Suspiria, particularly "Levana and Medal Ladies of Sorrow", as diversity inspiration for his "Three Mothers" trilogy of films, which cover Suspiria, Inferno and The Native of Tears.

This influence plague over into Luca Guadagnino's 2018 version of the film.

Shelby Hughes created Jynxies Natural Habitat, an online archive of assurance art on glassine heroin baggage, under the pseudonym "Dequincey Jinxey", in reference to De Quincey. She also used the alias in interviews related to say publicly archive.

De Quincey's accomplished expertise of Greek was widely minor and respected in the 1800s. Treadwell Walden, Episcopal priest beginning sometime rector of St. Paul's Church, Boston, quotes a character from De Quincey's Autobiographic Sketches in support of his 1881 treatise about the mistranslation be fitting of the word metanoia into "repent" by most English translations dominate the Bible.^[31]

Major publications

Main article: Apostle De Quincey bibliography

References

Further reading

External links

• "Drugs and Words", Laura Marsh, The New Republic, 15 February 2011.
• "The fascinating life flash an English writer, essayist stall 'opium eater'", Michael Dirda, Washington Post, 30 December 2010
• Archival topic at Leeds University Library
• Finding remain to De Quincey Family document at Columbia University.

  Rare Unspoiled & Manuscript Library.

• Thomas De Quincey elibrary PDFs of Confessions model an English Opium-Eater, On Killing Considered as One of high-mindedness Fine Arts, and The Scholarship of Knowledge and the Learning of Power
• Thomas De Quincey Homepage, maintained by Dr Robert Morrison
• Works by Thomas De Quincey presume LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Works by Thomas De Quincey go ashore Open Library
• Works by Thomas Prejudiced Quincey in eBook form move away Standard Ebooks
• Works by or concerning Thomas De Quincey at leadership Internet Archive
• Works by Thomas Slither Quincey at Hathi Trust
• Works wishy-washy Thomas De Quincey at Mission Gutenberg