Daniel Defoe

Defoe, Daniel (1660?–1731), English author, one of the originators of the English novel. Originally a merchant, he later took to writing essays and pamphlets, including The Shortest Way with Dissenters (1702), a satire parodying the leaders of the Anglican High Church (for which he was fined and pilloried). He was nearly 60 when he began writing the realistic novels for which he is best known, including Robinson Crusoe (1719), Moll Flanders (1722), and A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).