Thomas de Quincey was an English writer and a member of the snappy group of 19th-century writers and pals that included Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, William Hazlitt, and Charles Lamb. De Quincy ran away from home at a tender age, then got himself addicted to opium. It proved to be an excellent career move, as it resulted in his 1821 magazine serial Confessions of an English Opium Eater. The series was a smash and made his reputation. During his career he wrote primarily for journals and magazines, including the famous Blackwood's.