Daniel Defoe
c. 1660–1731
Biography
Daniel Defoe was an English writer, journalist, merchant and spy who lived from about 1660 to 1731. He tried many trades and was often in difficulty with the authorities: he wrote a great many political pamphlets, and at one point he spent time in prison.
He is one of the earliest writers to make the English novel popular in Britain. Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, went through several printings within months of its first appearance and has since become one of the most widely published books in history. It inspired so many imitations that a tale of a castaway on a remote island is still called a Robinsonade. Defoe also wrote Moll Flanders, Roxana and Colonel Jack, novels about people who have to get on by their wits in a hard society.
The site holds The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, the story of a sailor wrecked on an island who builds a life there from what he can salvage and his own labour. It is the book that has kept Defoe's name known to general readers for more than three centuries.
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Books
The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
by Daniel Defoe
Robinson Crusoe (KROO-soh, zoh) is an English adventure novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. It is often credited as marking the beginning of realistic fiction as a literary genre, and has been described as the first novel, or at least the first English novel…
Summary from Wikipedia: Robinson Crusoe (CC BY-SA 4.0)