Daniel Defoe - Oeuvres - Classcompilé n° 27

Biographie de Daniel Defoe

Daniel Foe (Original Name) was born in London. He added the "De" later and claimed to be a descendant of the family of DeBeau Fuax. His Father, James, wanted Daniel to be a minister, but at 18 Daniel left school and entered the world of business as a general merchant. In 1684 Daniel married Mary Tuffley the daughter of a London merchant . There were eight children and the marriage lasted 50 years.
Through the years he was rarely out of debt and spent time in prison for non-payment of bills. His political activities and pamphleteering through the years resulted in his arrest in 1703 and he was sent to Newgate Prison. The Earl of Oxford set his release and paid some of his bills in exchange for being an intelligence officer for the Tories. Robinson Crusoe was written in 1719 and was based on the Scottish castaway Alexander Selkirk who spent four years stranded on the island of Juan Fernandez.
Defoe died on April 24, 1731. He was known to have used 198 pen names. Some of his other works are Captain Singleton, Colonel Jack, Moll Flanders & Roxana.