Daniel Defoe (about 1660–1731) was an English merchant, journalist, pamphleteer and secret agent who, at nearly sixty, wrote Robinson Crusoe, often called the first English novel. Moll Flanders and A Journal of the Plague Year followed, both told as if they were true.
A trader in trouble
Daniel Foe was born in London around 1660, the son of a Presbyterian candle merchant; he later added the 'De' to his name. As a Dissenter he could not attend Oxford or Cambridge and was educated at a Dissenting academy.
He became a merchant in hosiery, wine and tobacco, travelled in Europe and took part in the Duke of Monmouth's failed rebellion of 1685. His businesses failed more than once, and in 1692 he went bankrupt with large debts.
Pamphlets and the pillory
Defoe made his name as a writer of pamphlets and satirical verse. The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters (1702), which ironically proposed to suppress Dissenters, was taken literally and then understood as a mockery; he was fined, imprisoned and set in the pillory in 1703.
Freed with the help of the politician Robert Harley, he worked for him as a writer and secret agent, notably in Scotland before the Union of 1707. From 1704 to 1713 he wrote almost alone a newspaper, the Review, appearing several times a week.
The novels
In 1719, aged about fifty-nine, he published The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, presented as written by Crusoe himself. Its success was immediate, and Defoe wrote a sequel within months.
Captain Singleton, Moll Flanders, Colonel Jack, A Journal of the Plague Year and Roxana followed in a few years, along with A Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain. He died in London in April 1731, hiding from creditors, and was buried at Bunhill Fields.
Anecdotes
Some five hundred works
Defoe was one of the most prolific writers in English. Scholars have attributed to him several hundred books and pamphlets, though how many he really wrote is still debated, since most appeared without his name.
The pillory turned to triumph
When Defoe stood in the pillory in July 1703, the London crowd is said to have thrown flowers rather than stones, and drunk his health. He had written a Hymn to the Pillory for the occasion.
Frequently asked questions
Is Robinson Crusoe a true story?
No, but it was inspired in part by the Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk, who lived alone for over four years on an island off Chile before being rescued in 1709.
Why was Defoe put in the pillory?
For his ironic pamphlet The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters (1702), judged seditious once its irony was understood.
What else did Defoe write?
Moll Flanders, A Journal of the Plague Year, Roxana, Captain Singleton and a Tour through Great Britain, besides hundreds of pamphlets and the newspaper the Review.