Daniel Defoe (1660 – 24 April 1731) was an English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer and spy, now most famous for his novel “Robinson Crusoe”. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularize the form in Britain and with others such as Samuel Richardson, is among the founders of the English novel. A prolific and versatile writer, he wrote more than five hundred books, pamphlets and journals on various topics (including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural). He was also a pioneer of economic journalism.
Early life
Daniel Foe (his original name) was probably born in Fore Street, in the parish of St. Giles Cripplegate, London. Defoe later added the aristocratic-sounding "De" to his name and on occasion claimed descent from the family of De Beau Faux. His birth date and birthplace are uncertain and sources offer dates from 1659–1662, with 1660 considered the most likely. His father, James Foe, was a prosperous tallow chandler and a member of the Worshipful Company of Butchers. In Defoe's early life, he experienced some of the most unusual occurrences in English history: in 1665, 70,000 were killed by the Great Plague of London and next year, the Great Fire of London left standing only Defoe's and two other houses in his neighborhood. In 1667, when he was probably about seven, a Dutch fleet sailed up the Medway via the River Thames and attacked the town of Chatham in the raid on the Medway. His mother Annie had died by the time he was about ten.
Education
Defoe was educated at the Rev. James Fisher's boarding school in Pixham Lane in Dorking, Surrey. As his parents were Presbyterian dissenters, around the age of 14, he attended a dissenting academy at Newington Green in London run by Charles Morton and is believed to have attended the Newington Green Unitarian Church .During this period, the English government persecuted those who chose to worship outside the Church of England.
Business career
Defoe entered the world of business as a general merchant, dealing at different times in hosiery, general woolen goods and wine. Though his ambitions were great and he was able to buy a country estate and a ship (as well as civets to make perfume), he was rarely out of debt. In 1684, Defoe married Mary Tuffley, the daughter of a London merchant, receiving a dowry of £3,700 – a huge amount by the standards of the day. With his debts and political difficulties, the marriage was most likely troubled but it lasted 50 years and produced eight children, six of whom survived.
In 1685, Defoe joined the ill-fated Monmouth Rebellion but gained a pardon, by which he escaped the Bloody Assizes of Judge George Jeffreys. Queen Mary and her husband William III were jointly crowned in 1688 and Defoe became one of William's close allies and a secret agent. Some of the new regime's policies, led to conflict with France, thus damaging prosperous trade relationships for Defoe, who had established himself as a merchant. In 1692, Defoe was arrested for debts of £700 (and his civets were seized), though his total debts may have amounted to £17,000. His laments were loud and he always defended unfortunate debtors but there is evidence that his financial dealings were not always honest.
Following his release, he probably travelled in Europe and Scotland and it may have been at this time that he traded wine to Cadiz, Porto and Lisbon. By 1695 he was back in England, now formally using the name "Defoe" and serving as a "commissioner of the glass duty", responsible for collecting taxes on bottles. In 1696 he ran a tile and brick factory in what is now Tilbury, Essex and lived in the parish of Chadwell St. Mary.
Writing
Pamphleteering and prison
` Defoe's first notable publication was An Essay upon Projects, a series of proposals for social and economic improvement, published in 1697. From 1697 to 1698 he defended the right of King William III to a standing army during disarmament after the Treaty of Ryswick (1697) had ended the Nine Years' War (1688–97). His most successful poem, The True-Born Englishman (1701), defended the king against the perceived xenophobia of his enemies, satirizing the English claim to racial purity. In 1701 Defoe, flanked by a guard of sixteen gentlemen of quality, presented the Legion's Memorial to the Speaker of the House of Commons, later his employer, Robert Harley. It demanded the release of the Kentish petitioners, who had asked Parliament to support the king in an imminent war against France.
The death of William III in 1702 once again created a political upheaval as the king was replaced by Queen Anne, who immediately began her offensive against Nonconformists. Defoe being a natural target, his pamphleteering and political activities resulted in his arrest and placement in a pillory on 31 July 1703, principally on account of his December 1702 pamphlet entitled The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters; Or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church, purporting to argue for their extermination. In it he ruthlessly satirized both the High church Tories and those Dissenters who hypocritically practiced so-called "occasional conformity", such as his Stoke Newington neighbor Sir Thomas Abney. Though it was published anonymously, the true authorship was quickly discovered and Defoe was arrested.
Late writing and novels
The extent and particulars of Defoe's writing in the period from the Tory fall in 1714 to the publication of Robinson Crusoe in 1719 is widely contested. Defoe comments on the tendency to attribute tracts of uncertain authorship to him in his apologia Appeal to Honour and Justice (1715), a defense of his part in Harley's Tory ministry (1710–14). Other works that anticipate his novelistic career include The Family Instructor (1715), a conduct manual on religious duty; Minutes of the Negotiations of Monsr. Mesnager (1717), in which he impersonates Nicolas Mesnager, the French plenipotentiary who negotiated the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); and A Continuation of the Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy (1718), a satire of European politics and religion, ostensibly written by a Muslim in Paris.
From 1719 to 1724, Defoe published the novels for which he is famous. In 1719 he published his famous novel Robinson Crusoe. In the final decade of his life, he also wrote conduct manuals, including Religious Courtship (1722), The Complete English Tradesman (1726) and The New Family Instructor (1727). He published a number of books decrying the breakdown of the social order, such as The Great Law of Subordination Considered (1724) and Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business (1725) and works on the supernatural, like The Political History of the Devil (1726), A System of Magick (1727) and An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions (1727). His works on foreign travel and trade include A General History of Discoveries and Improvements (1727) and Atlas Maritimus and Commercialis (1728). Perhaps his greatest achievement with the novels is the magisterial A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain (1724–27), which provided a panoramic survey of British trade on the eve of the Industrial Revolution.
Defoe also wrote a three-volume travel book, A Tour Thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724–27) that provided a vivid first-hand account of the state of the country. Other non-fiction books include The Complete English Tradesman (1726) and London, the Most Flourishing City in the Universe (1728). Defoe published over 560 books and pamphlets and is considered to be the founder of British journalism.
Death
Daniel Defoe died on 24 April 1731, probably while in hiding from his creditors. He was interred in Bunhill Fields, London, where a monument was erected to his memory in 1870. Defoe is known to have used at least 198 pen names.
Important Works
Novels
Non-fiction
Ø The Storm (1704) - a description of the worst storm to hit Britain in recorded times, including eyewitness accounts.
Ø The History Of The Remarkable Life of John Sheppard (1724) - describing Sheppard's life of crime, and the miraculous escapes from prison for which he was notable.
Ø A Narrative Of All The Robberies, Escapes, &c. of John Sheppard (1724) – written by or taken from Jack Sheppard himself before he was hanged, apparently by way of conclusion to the Defoe work.
Essays
Poems
Ø Hymn to the Pillory (1703).
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