Daniel Defoe – Author Biography
Early Life
Daniel Defoe was born around 1660 in London, the son of a tallow chandler. Raised a Dissenter outside the Church of England, he was barred from Oxford and Cambridge, receiving instead a practical education at a Dissenting academy — which suited his restless, entrepreneurial temperament.
Career
Defoe was a merchant, pamphleteer, journalist, and secret agent before he was a novelist — he founded The Review, arguably England’s first periodical, and was pilloried for satire. Near sixty, he turned to fiction and essentially invented the English novel: Robinson Crusoe (1719), based on the marooned sailor Alexander Selkirk, was a sensation, followed by Moll Flanders (1722), A Journal of the Plague Year (1722), and Roxana (1724). He died in 1731, still writing.
Major Works
Robinson Crusoe (1719) is his immortal work, alongside Moll Flanders (1722) and A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).
Writing Style and Themes
Defoe wrote in plain, circumstantial, almost journalistic prose — inventories, dates, and practical details that make the incredible feel documented. His recurring themes are survival through ingenuity, the Protestant work ethic, providence and self-reliance, and the moral ambiguity of his rogues and adventurers.
Legacy
Defoe is the father of the English novel; Robinson Crusoe created the castaway story and has been translated, adapted, and imitated for three centuries. His blend of journalism and fiction set the template for realism.
