![]() ![]() In the EEBO and ECCO databases of full texts of early English books to 1800 there are 1144 entries for him as an author!įrom the early 1700s, Defoe turned to writing to make a living. Fewer than one quarter of his works, conservatively estimated at 518 titles, are in print today. He supported freedom of religion and freedom of the press. ![]() He was Whiggish politically, but like many in his era Defoe did not want to be identified with any one political party and wrote in support of more than one side on many issues. ![]() ![]() He also went to prison for some of his religious writings and for libel. Initially engaged in the wholesale hosiery business, he invested unwisely in various business ventures, went bankrupt, and went to debtors’ prison. The family were Dissenters, Nonconformists, Protestants not affiliated with the State Church, the Church of England. With his devoted wife, Mary Tuffley, he had six daughters and two sons, all but two of whom lived into adulthood. His father was a prosperous London tallow chandler, a maker of candles from animal fat, used for home lighting. He was the youngest of three children of James and Alice Foe. His Review was one of the earliest periodicals. Students still read his novels Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders. Daniel Defoe, 1660?–1731 was a London area based businessman, journalist, political pamphleteer, spy, and one of the early proponents of the novel as a genre of literature. ![]()
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