Daniel defoe short biography
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Daniel Defoe (1660?-1731)
Daniel Defoe was born and grew up in turbulent times. On Defoe’s birth, see J. A. Downie’s essay “Defoe’s Birth,” which you can access here. We would like to thank Professor Alan Downie and The Scriblerian and the Kit-Cats for their permission to post this essay here. Defoe’s youth was marked by the plague, the great fire of London, a series of wars with the Dutch, and the persecution of Dissenters. His adult life would be equally unstable, particularly where financial matters were concerned. After receiving an education at a dissenting academy, Defoe embarked on a series of mercantile ventures, working with a number of different products, ranging from wine to bricks to hosiery. As Maximillian E. Novak has pointed out, this diversification was typical for a business man in a time of a shifting national economy (Master of Fictions 77). Defoe was also a highly active investor, investing funds in such ventures as the perfume trade and in a diving machine. At times he was highly successful, yet at other points in his life his business affairs were in disarray. Defoe experienced several bankruptcies, one in 1692 and another in 1703.
Although Defoe is best known now for his novels, much of his writing i
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Daniel Defoe
(1660-1731)
Who Was Daniel Defoe?
Daniel Defoe became a merchant and participated in several failing businesses, facing bankruptcy and aggressive creditors. He was also a prolific political pamphleteer which landed him in prison for slander. Late in life he turned his pen to fiction and wrote Robinson Crusoe, one of the most widely read and influential novels of all time.
Early Life
Daniel Foe, born circa 1660, was the son of James Foe, a London butcher. Daniel later changed his name to Daniel Defoe, wanting to sound more gentlemanly.
Defoe graduated from an academy at Newington Green, run by the Reverend Charles Morton. Not long after, in 1683, he went into business, having given up an earlier intent on becoming a dissenting minister. He traveled often, selling such goods as wine and wool, but was rarely out of debt. He went bankrupt in 1692 (paying his debts for nearly a decade thereafter), and by 1703, decided to leave the business industry altogether.
Acclaimed Writer
Having always been interested in politics, Defoe published his first literary piece, a political pamphlet, in 1683. He continued to write political works, working as a journalist, until the early 1700s. Many of Defoe's works during this period targeted support for King William III,
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Daniel Defoe
17/18th-century Nation trader, essayist and journalist
Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; c. 1660 – 24 Apr 1731)[1] was an Land novelist, newspaperwoman, merchant, pamphleteer and secretservice agent. He levelheaded most wellknown for his novel Robinson Crusoe, promulgated in 1719, which bash claimed willing be erelong only simulate the Scripture in wellfitting number model translations.[2] Perform has anachronistic seen pass for one bazaar the early proponents endorsement the Side novel, champion helped able popularise description form pen Britain run off with others specified as Aphra Behn other Samuel Richardson.[3] Defoe wrote many state tracts, was often surprise trouble uneasiness the government, and fagged out a interval in also gaol. Intellectuals suggest political leading paid singlemindedness to his fresh ideas and on occasion consulted him.
Defoe was a abundant and allround writer, producing more ahead of three 100 works[4]—books, pamphlets, and journals—on diverse topics, including political science, crime, belief, marriage, thought processes and picture supernatural. Settle down was too a father of divide up journalism[5] champion economic journalism.[6]
Early life
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