Born Manchester. Author, best known for "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" (1821). Was as addicted to books as much as to drink or opium, sometimes renting an extra lodging (which he could not afford) because the first was full of books and papers. Reacted badly to his sister's death when he was a child, dwelling on the details of her corpse and post-mortem for longer than is healthy, Developed a profitable line writing sensational reports of murders, rapes, etc. for the mass magazine audience. Wrote "On murder considered as one of the fine arts" and stories of criminal detection which put him among the early detective fiction writers. Married and had 8 children but then moaned about how the noisy, hungry children kept inspiration at bay. His solution was to leave them in poverty for most of the time while he lived with friends, doing little work. Died at home in Edinburgh.
This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Thomas de Quincey
Commemorated ati
Thomas de Quincey
Note: "Quincey" seems to be the accepted spelling rather than the "Quincy" o...
Other Subjects
Lippincott's Magazine
Monthly magazine. Published in Philadelphia until 1915 when it relocated to New York to become McBride's Magazine. It merged with Scribner's Magazine in 1916. It published original works, general a...
Robert Maxwell
Publisher, politician and swindler. Born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch, in Slatinské Doly (now Solotyino, Ukraine). He came to Britain after WW2 where he built up the Pergamon Press, acquired the ...
Person, Journalism / Publishing, Politics & Administration, Czechoslovakia
Daily Mirror newspaper
Tabloid newspaper. Created by Alfred Harmsworth, initially as a paper for women by women but the following year he changed it to be a picture paper with a male editor and he fired all the female j...
Frederic George Stephens
Born 10th October 1827, Walworth. Art critic and historian. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1844 where he met Millais and Holman Hunt with whom he joined to found the Pre-Raphaelite Broth...
Edward Lloyd
Publisher and newspaper proprietor. Born Thornton Heath. His publishing career began at the lower end with sensational stories and Charles Dickens' plagiarisms/parodies, such as 'Oliver Twiss' and ...