You are not to take it, if you please,
the saying of an ignorant man,
when I press my opinion that such
a book as Robinson Crusoe never
[before] was written and never
will be written again.
WILKIE COLLINS, The Moonstone, Chapter I

Daniel Defoe, son of James Foe, a butcher in Cripplegate and of Flemish extraction, was born in the parish of St. Giles, London, late in 1659 or early in 1660. He was a novelist, poet, and pamphleteer, now generally remembered for his "Robinson Crusoe," written in 1715 and 1716. His other novels, however, are well worth reading. "A Journal of the Plague Year," published in 1722, is so realistic that it might well be mistaken for the observations of an eyewitness. The same may be said of "Captain Singleton," "Moll Flanders," and "The Fortunate Mistress." Defoe was married to Mary Tuffley January 1, 1683, at which time he was still plain Daniel Foe, his change in name not being made until about 1697. His death occurred in Ropemaker's Alley, Moorfields, April 26, 1731.

REFERENCES: Biographies of Defoe have been written by James Sutherland, Geo. Chalmers, Walter Wilson, William Chadwick, William Lee, and Thomas Wright. The latter draws a parallel between events in the lives of Defoe and Robinson Crusoe. William S. Lloyd, Catalogue of various editions of Robinson Crusoe, Philadelphia, 1915.

Dime Classic Stories. Robinson Crusoe.
Boys' Booths of Romance and Adventure. No. 1
Half-Dime Library. No. 16