Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe (1660?-1731), English businessman, journalist, pamphleteer and prolific author wrote Robinson Crusoe (1719);

Crusoe's fictional autobiographical account of his twenty-eight years shipwrecked on a remote island against incredible odds is continued in The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1720). First published when he was almost sixty years old, Defoe is considered by many to have written the first English novel. He wrote Crusoe in the style of social realism in which he is the observant reporter, historian, humorist, and grand story teller. With his extraordinary bibliography comprising myriad historical, satirical and political writings, Defoe's most famous novel was an immediate success.