Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe was an author, political activist, journalist, and merchant of the 18th century. He was the author of over 370 works of nonfiction as well as many short essays.http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_18c/defoe/index.html To many people he may be most known for his novel Robinson Crusoe.http://www.bartleby.com/219/0101.html The exact date of his birth is unknown, but it is generally accepted to be between 1659 and 1661. He was born with the name Daniel Foe; however, around 1695 he changed it to Defoe.http://www.ccel.org/d/defoe/ Defoe was a dissenter, a member of the Protestant church who protested the Anglican church. He was the son of a butcher, and his family wanted him to become a preacher, but he quit school to become a merchant and a traveler. He also became extensively involved in politics. Defoe wrote a great many political pamphlets, and established the periodical The Review in 1704 when the English newspaper business was at its beginning.http://www.bartleby.com/219/0102.html He was actively involved in the Monmouth rebellion of 1685 against James II.http://www.readprint.com/author-27/Daniel-Defoe-books#biography In 1688 Defoe changed sides and became a supporter of William that earned him a reputation as a mercenary and turncoat that stayed with him the rest of his life.

Very little is known of the early life of Daniel Defoe. He married Mary Tuffley and had 2 sons and 5 daughters.http://www.readprint.com/author-27/Daniel-Defoe-books#biography In 1702 he wrote the satire The Shortest-Way With Dissenters for which he was arrested and imprisoned in 1703. This pamphlet took the rhetoric of the Anglican Tories and called for the extermination of all the dissenters. He was released from prison when he went to work for Robert Harley and the Tories as a pamphleteer and spy, enforcing his reputation as a mercenary.http://www.readprint.com/author-27/Daniel-Defoe-books#biography Defoe died in 1731 at his home in England.http://www.ccel.org/d/defoe/

Daniel Defoe never made it to the ministry as his family had hoped, instead he opted to become a commission merchant in Cornhill, eventually going bankrupt in 1692. http://www.notablebiographies.com/De-Du/Defoe-Daniel.html He served a propaganda writer and agent for the Tories and when they fell from power continued his work for the Whig party. He used many pen names including Eye Witness, T.Taylor, and Andrew Morton, Merchant, and Heliostrapolis, secretary to the Emperor of the Moon.http://www.ccel.org/d/defoe/

Defoe was considered one of the first authors to write stories in which there was a believable character in realistic situations. In 1719 he published Robinson Crusoe, a story based somewhat on the life of a shipwrecked sailor named Selkirk.http://www.online-literature.com/defoe/crusoe/ Robinson Crusoe saw instant success and there were six printings in four months.http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_18c/defoe/index.html By 1895 the book had been translated in 110 languages including Eskimo.http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_18c/defoe/index.html Defoe also authored Moll Flanders the novel the follows the adventures of a thief and prostitute turned gentlewoman.http://www.online-literature.com/defoe/moll_flanders/

In the 1720s Defoe stopped his political writing and focused on historical works, a guide book, the supernatural, treatment of servants, piracy, and the plague.http://www.bartleby.com/219/0123.html

"In the School of Affliction I have learnt more Philosophy than at the Academy, and more Divinity than from the Pulpit: In Prison I have learnt to know that Liberty does not consist in open Doors, and the free Egress and Regress of Locomotion. I have seen the rough side of the World as well as the smooth, and have in less than half a Year tasted the difference between the Closet of a King, and the Dungeon of Newgate." http://www.readprint.com/author-27/Daniel-Defoe-books#biography

"All men would be tyrants if they could."http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/d/daniel_defoe.html

"I have often thought of it as one of the most barbarous customs in the world, considering us as a civilized and a Christian country, that we deny the advantages of learning to women." http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/d/daniel_defoe.html

• A Journal of the Plague Year
• Robinson Crusoe
• Moll Flanders
• A General History of the Pyrates
• The Storm
• Atalantis Major
• The Complete English Tradesman
• The Consolidator
• Dickory Cronke
• An Essay Upon Projects
• Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business
• From London to Land's End
• The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
• History of the Plague in London
• The History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard
• Memoirs of a Cavalier
• Memoirs of Major Alexander Ramkins
• Military Memoirs of Capt. George Carleton
• Tour through the Eastern Counties of England, 1722
• A Vindication of the Press