Daniel Defoe

The author Daniel Defoe was born in 1660 with the name Daniel Foe. In the year 1703 he added the nobility-form „De“ and henceforth he was called Daniel Defoe. He was the son of an emigrated protestant-familiy. This was the reason why he had to handle with discrimination his whole life. Because of that Daniel Defoe had to go to the Academy Newington, the visit of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge was forbidden for him. Defoe was descended from the civil middle classes. He worked as a journalist and as an author, who deals with political themes; he worked for the Whigs and the Tories. Because of his political works he had to go into a prison. After his release he published the journal „Review“. But his big success was the novel „Robinson Crusoe“ (1719) although he published other novels: Captain Singleton (1720) The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders (1722) The History and Remarkable Life of the Truly Honourable Colonel Jacque, Commonly Call ´d Colonel Jack (1722) The Journal of the Plague Year (1722)

Literary:

Maier, Katharina: Die berühmtesten Dichter und Schriftsteller Europas. Wiesbaden, Marix Verlag, 2007.

Petzold, Dieter: Daniel Defoe >>Robinson Crusoe<<. In der Reihe ˶Text und Geschichte”, Band 2, erschienen. München, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1982.