Daniel Defoe
DANIEL DEFOE (1660-1731)
Daniel Defoe was born in London as the son of a butcher. In his youth, he travelled all over Europe as a merchant, and he joined the army in 1688. Before he started writing his first novel at the age of nearly sixty, he had also worked as an economist, a journalist and a spy.
Robinson Crusoe is based on a true story which Defoe had heard about. In 1704, a Scotsman, Alexander Selkirk, had an argument with the captain of a ship and asked to be put ashore on an uninhabited island. He lived there alone until he was picked up by another English ship five years later.