1660-1731. English novelist and journalist, 
who wrote Robinson Crusoe 1719, which was 
greatly influential in the development of the 
novel. An active pamphleteer and political 
critic, he was imprisoned 1702-04 following
publication of the ironic The Shortest Way
With Dissenters. Fictional works include Moll
Flanders 1722 and A Journal of the Plague
Year 1724. Altogether he produced over 500
books, pamphlets, and journals. Born in
Cripplegate, the son of a butcher, James Foe,
Defoe was educated for the Nonconformist
ministry, but became a hosier. He took part
in Monmouth's rebellion, and joined William
of Orange 1688. He was bankrupted three times
as a result of various business ventures,
once for the then enormous amount of 7,000.
After his business had failed, he held a
civil-service post 1695-99. He wrote numerous
pamphlets, and first achieved fame with the
satire The True-Born Englishman 1701,
followed in 1702 by the ironic The Shortest
Way with Dissenters, for which he was fined,
imprisoned, and pilloried. In Newgate he
wrote his `Hymn to the Pillory' and started a
paper, The Review 1704-13. Released in 1704,
he travelled in Scotland 1706-07, working to
promote the Union, and published A History of
the Union 1709. During the next ten years he
was almost constantly employed as a political
controversialist and pamphleteer.