Who was the founder of English journalism and author of Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders?
Daniel Defoe was a prolific writer (over 370 known publications) who could–and would–turn his hand to almost any topic; he has been called one of the greatest journalists and the father of journalism. To many of his contemporaries, he was a man who sold his pen to the political party in office and so lacking integrity. He was not taken seriously by literary men, though his skill at writing was acknowledged. Alexander Pope said of him, “The first part of Robinson Crusoe is very good–De Foe wrote a vast many things; and none bad, though none excellent, except this” (1742). He was an outsider, being a Dissenter or Puritan, the son of a butcher, and a suspected government spy (this suspicion was confirmed in the nineteenth century). Jonathan Swift regarded him with contempt, “One of these Authors (the Fellow that was pilloryed, I have forgot his Name) is indeed so grave, sententious, dogmatical a Rogue, that there is no enduring him.” At least part of Swift’s attitude is snobbery; Defoe wa
Daniel Defoe (c. 1659-1661 — 24 April 1731[1]), born Daniel Foe, was an English writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain, and is even referred to by some as one of the founders of the English novel.[2] A prolific and versatile writer, he wrote more than five hundred books, pamphlets, and journals on various topics (including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural). He was also a pioneer of economic journalism. Defoe’s famous novel Robinson Crusoe (1719) tells of a man’s shipwreck on a deserted island and his subsequent adventures. The author may have based part of his narrative on the true story of the Scottish castaway Alexander Selkirk. He may have also been inspired by the Latin or English translation of a book by the Andalusian-Arab Muslim polymath Ibn Tufail, who was known as “Abubac
Daniel Defoe’s literary hoaxes Nicholson Baker (who we blogged about last week) expands on the mendacious literary legacy of Daniel Defoe in the Columbia Journalism Review. The founder of English journalism and author of Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders, Defoe lied constantly, even masquerading as a jail-breaking thief and writing a true-crime bestseller. Baker notes: “Robinson Crusoe is Defoe’s most famous hoax. We describe it as a novel, of course, but it wasn’t born that way. On its 1719 title page, the book was billed as the strange, surprising adventures of a mariner who lived all alone for eight-and-twenty years on an uninhabited island, ‘Written by H I M S E L F’ – and people at first took this claim for truth and bought thousands of copies.” Sources: http://www.newstatesman.
