Dictionary.net

An American journalist and author; born in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., Sept. 11, 1836; died in Geneva, Switzerland, Sept. 12, 1870. He received his education at Union College. He was editor of Vanity Fair from 1858 to 1860, and also wrote for the World and Evening Post, besides contributing frequently to Harper's Monthly. His most famous work is "The Hasheesh Eater" (1857), a glowing portrayal of the early delights and later horrors of addiction to the drug. In 1868 he published "The Opium Habit", a warning against that habit, to which he himself later became a victim. He wrote also "The Heart of the Continent" (1870). His poem "Too Late" is familiar in anthologies.