Thomas De Quincey, the English author and opium eater, dies in Edinburgh

Thomas De Quincey was from a Manchester merchant family and attended Oxford University where he became addicted to the opium he would use throughout his life. He made a sensational entry into letters when, as an unknown, he published his "Confessions of an Opium Eater" in the London Magazine in 1821. He went on to a long career as essayist and translator and enjoyed popularity in the United States during the last decade of his life.  (By John Osborne)