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Born Daniel Foe, the son of James Foe, a butcher in the Stoke Newington neighbourhood of London, England, he would later add the aristocratic sounding "De" to his name as a nom de plume. He became a famous pamphleteer, journalist and novelist at a time of the birth of the novel in the English language, and thus fairly ranks as one of its progenitors.
Defoe's pamphleteering and political activities resulted in his arrest and placement in a pillory on July 31, 1703, principally on account of a pamphlet entitled "The Shortest Way with Dissenters", in which he ruthlessly satirised the High church Tories, purporting to argue for the extermination of dissenterThe term dissenter (from the Latin dissentire "to disagree"), labels one who dissents or disagrees in matters of opinion, belief, etc. In the social and religious history of England and Wales, however, it refers particularly to a member of a religious bods. The publication of his poem "Hymn to the Pillory", however, caused his audience at the pillory to throw flowers instead of the customary harmful and noxious objects, and to drink to his health.
After his three days in the pillory Defoe went into Newgate PrisonNewgate Prison is one of the most infamous prisons of English history. The prison was built at Newgate in 1188 on the orders of Henry I, and was significantly enlarged in 1236. It was used for a number of purposes including imprisoning people awaiting exe. Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and MortimerRobert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer ( 5 December 1661 21 May 1724), was an English statesman of the Stuart and early Georgian periods. Harley was the eldest son of Sir Edward Harley ( 1624- 1700), a prominent landowner in Herefordshire, and gra, brokered his release in exchange for Defoe's co-operation as an intelligence agent. He set up his periodical A Review of the Affairs of France in 1704, supporting the Harley ministry. The Review ran without interruption until 1713. When Harley lost power in 1708 Defoe continued writing it to support Godolphin, then again to support Harley and the Tories in the Tory ministry of 1710Events Enactment of the world's first copyright legislation, Britain's Act for the Encourage of Learning (short title) Ongoing events Great Northern War ( 1700- 1721) War of the Spanish Succession ( 1702- 1713) Births January 4 Giovanni Battista Pergolesi to 1714Events August 1 George, elector of Hanover becomes King George I of Great Britain. September 11 Barcelona surrenders to Spanish and French Borbonic armies in the War of the Spanish Succession. The Duchy of Savoy and Piedmont becomes the Kingdom of Sardini. After the Tories fell from power with the death of Queen Anne, Defoe continued doing intelligence work for the WhigThis article is about the British Whig party. For information about the American Whig party, see United States Whig Party. For information about the Liberian Whig party, see Whig (Liberia). For a long time in British politics, the two main parties were th government.
Defoe's famous novel Robinson Crusoe (1719), tells of a man's shipwreck on a desert island and his subsequent adventures. The author may have based his narrative on the true story of the shipwreck of Alexander Selkirk. (See ).
Defoe's next novel was Captain Singleton (1720), amazing for its portrayal of the redemptive power of one man's love for another. Hans Turley has recently shown how Quaker William's love turns Captain Singleton away from the murderous life of a pirate, and the two make a solemn vow to live as a male couple happily ever after in London, disguised as Greeks and never speaking English in public, with Singleton married to William's sister as a ruse.
Defoe wrote an account of the Great Plague of 1665: A Journal of the Plague Year.
He also wrote Moll Flanders (1722), a picaresque first-person narration of the fall and eventual redemption of a lone woman in 17th century England. She appears as a whore, bigamist and thief, lives in The Mint, commits adultery and incest, yet manages to keep the reader's sympathy. Both this work and Roxana, The Fortunate Mistress (1724) offer remarkable examples of the way in which Defoe seems to inhabit his fictional (yet "drawn from life") characters, not least in that they are women.
Daniel Defoe died on April 21, 1731 and was interred in Bunhill Fields, London, England.
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