Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe was an English trader, journalist and writer, born in London around 1660 and dying on 24 April 1731. He lived through a turbulent age that included the Great Fire, the Glorious Revolution and the rise of party politics. He worked as a merchant with mixed fortunes, wrote many pamphlets and satires on political and religious questions, and at times worked as an agent and propagandist for those in power. His outspoken writing once brought him a spell in prison and the pillory.

In his late fifties and sixties he turned to long prose narratives, and these are the works that made his name. Told in a plain, circumstantial voice, they present ordinary or desperate people as if their accounts were true. Because of this, Defoe is often counted among the founders of the English novel. His best-known book, Robinson Crusoe, remains one of the most widely read and retold stories in the language.