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{{Short description|English writer, merchant and spy (1660–1731)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2017}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Daniel Defoe
| image            = Daniel Defoe Kneller Style.jpg
| caption          = Portrait of Defoe in the style of [[Sir Godfrey Kneller]]
| birth_name       = Daniel Foe
| birth_date       = {{circa|1660}}
| birth_place      = [[Fore Street, London]]
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1731|4|24|1660|df=y}}
| death_place      = London, England
| resting_place    = [[Bunhill Fields]]
| occupation       = Writer, merchant, spy
| genre            = [[Adventure fiction|Adventure]]
| spouse           = {{marriage|Mary Tuffley|1684}}
| children         = 8
}}
'''Daniel Defoe''' ({{IPAc-en|d|ᵻ|ˈ|f|əʊ}} {{circa|1660}} – 24 April 1731)<ref>{{cite journal |last=Duguid |first=Paul |title=Limits of self-organization: Peer production and "laws of quality" |journal=[[First Monday (journal)|First Monday]] |date=2 October 2006 |volume=11 |issue=10 |doi=10.5210/fm.v11i10.1405 |language=en |issn=1396-0466 |quote=Most reliable sources hold that the date of Defoe's birth was uncertain and may have fallen in 1659 or 1661. The day of his death is also uncertain. |doi-access= free}}</ref> was an English writer, journalist,<ref name="Britannica">{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Daniel-Defoe|title=Daniel Defoe|publisher=Britannica.com|date=5 August 2017 |accessdate=2016-05-07}}</ref> merchant and spy. He is famous for his novels ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'' (1719), ''[[Moll Flanders]]'' (1722) and ''[[Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress]]'' (1724).<ref name=":0">{{Cite ODNB |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7421 |title=Daniel Defoe (1660?–1731) |last=Backscheider |first=Paula R. |date=January 2008 |edition=online |orig-year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/7421}}</ref> He has been seen as one of the earliest proponents of the [[English novel]], and helped to popularise the form in Britain with others such as [[Aphra Behn]] and [[Samuel Richardson]].<ref>"Defoe", ''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'', ed. Margaret Drabble. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 265.</ref>

Before the end of 1719, ''Robinson Crusoe'' had already run through four editions, and it has gone on to become one of the most widely published books in history, spawning so many imitations that its name is used to define a genre, the [[Robinsonade]]. Defoe also wrote many political tracts, was often in trouble with the authorities, and spent a period in prison. Intellectuals and political leaders paid attention to his fresh ideas and sometimes consulted him.

== Early life ==
Daniel Foe was probably born in [[Fore Street, London|Fore Street]] in the parish of [[St Giles-without-Cripplegate|St Giles]] [[Cripplegate]], London.<ref name="EncylLon">{{Cite book |first1=Christopher |last1=Hibbert |authorlink1=Christopher Hibbert |first2=Ben |last2=Weinreb |first3=John |last3=Keay |first4=Julia |last4=Keay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xa0D0PqiwfEC&pg=PA304 |title=The London Encyclopaedia |publisher=Pan Macmillan |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-230-73878-2 |location=London |page=304}}</ref> Defoe later added the [[Nobiliary particle|aristocratic-sounding "De"]] to his name, and on occasion made the false claim of descent from a family named De Beau Faux.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stephanson |first=Raymond |authorlink=The Yard of Wit |editor=Raymond Stephanson, Darren N. Wagner |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4nAhCwAAQBAJ |title=The Secrets of Generation Reproduction in the Long Eighteenth Century |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4426-6693-1 |location=Toronto |page=105}}</ref> "De" is also a common prefix in Flemish surnames.<ref>{{cite web |last=Torselli |first=Stefano |title=Daniel Defoe |work=www.baroque.it |url=https://www.baroque.it/cultura-del-periodo-barocco/letteratura/scrittori-e-letterati/daniel-defoe.html |access-date=17 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803152602/http://www.baroque.it/cultura-del-periodo-barocco/letteratura/scrittori-e-letterati/daniel-defoe.html |archive-date=3 August 2017}}</ref> His birthdate and birthplace are uncertain, and sources offer dates from 1659 to 1662, with the summer or early autumn of 1660 considered the most likely.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bastian |first=F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yNquCwAAQBAJ&q=%22early+autumn+of+1660%22&pg=PA8 |title=Defoe's Early Years |publisher=Macmillan Press |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-333-27432-3 |location=London |page=8 |access-date=23 October 2017}}</ref> His father, James Foe, was a prosperous [[tallow]] [[Chandlery|chandler]] of probable [[County of Flanders|Flemish]] descent,<ref name="SCHAFF">{{Cite book |last=Schaff |first=Barbara |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NrH8DwAAQBAJ |title=Handbook of British Travel Writing |publisher=De Gruyter |year=2020 |isbn=978-3-11-049705-2 |location=Berlin}}</ref><ref name="BRITANNICA">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Mutter |first=Reginald P.C. |title=Daniel Defoe – English author |encyclopedia=Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Daniel-Defoe |access-date=17 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211017103647/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Daniel-Defoe |archive-date=17 October 2021}}</ref>{{efn|The surname Defoe is of Flemish origin, probably derived from [[Faux (surname)|Faux]]<ref name="WRIGHT">{{cite book |last=Wright |first=Thomas |authorlink=Thomas Wright (antiquarian) |date=1894 |title=The Life of Daniel Defoe Volume 1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YxhAAAAAYAAJ |location= |publisher=Cassell |page=2 |isbn=}}</ref> or one of its variants, such as [[Defauw (surname)|Defauw]].<ref name="KONINKLIJKE">{{Cite book |last1=Stevelinck |first1=Ernest |last2=De Roover |first2=Raymond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cxYjAQAAMAAJ |title=De comptabiliteit door de eeuwen heen tentoonstelling in de Koninklijke Bibliotheek Albert I |publisher=Royal Library of Belgium |year=1970 |location=Brussels |page=150}}</ref> Defoe lauded [[Elizabeth I|Elizabeth]] for encouraging the [[Flemish people#United Kingdom|Flemings]].<ref name="WRIGHT"/> It is thought that he was aware of his origins<ref name="WRIGHT"/> and it is possible that he understood some [[Flemish dialects|Flemish]]/[[Dutch language|Dutch]], since his library had Dutch titles.<ref>{{Cite book |last=van Ginneken |first=Jaap |authorlink=Jaap van Ginneken |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MU97AAAAQBAJ |title=Screening Difference How Hollywood's Blockbuster Films Imagine Race, Ethnicity, and Culture |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4616-4329-6 |location=Lanham, Maryland |page=75}}</ref>}} and a member of the [[Worshipful Company of Butchers]]. His mother, Alice, had died by the time he was about ten.<ref name="autogenerated2006">{{Cite book |title=The Broadview Anthology of Literature: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century |publisher=Broadview Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-55111-611-2 |editor-last=Black |editor-first=Joseph Laurence |location=Toronto}}</ref><ref name="rich">{{cite book |last=Richetti |first=John |title=The Life of Daniel Defoe |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-631-19529-0 |doi=10.1002/9780470754665}}{{page needed|date=November 2022}}</ref>

In Defoe's early childhood, he lived through several significant historical events: in 1665, seventy thousand were killed by the [[Great Plague of London]], and the next year, the [[Great Fire of London]] left only Defoe's and two other houses standing in his neighbourhood.<ref name="west">Richard West (1998) ''Daniel Defoe: The Life and Strange, Surprising Adventures''. New York: Carroll & Graf. {{ISBN|978-0-7867-0557-3}}.</ref> In 1667, when he was probably about seven, a Dutch fleet sailed up the [[River Medway|Medway]] via the [[River Thames]] and attacked the town of [[Chatham, Kent|Chatham]] in the [[raid on the Medway]].

=== Education ===
Defoe was educated at the Rev. James Fisher's boarding school in Pixham Lane in [[Dorking]], Surrey.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bastian |first=F. |title=Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year Reconsidered |journal=The Review of English Studies |date=1965 |volume=16 |issue=62 |pages=151–173 |jstor=513101}}</ref> His parents were [[English Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] [[English Dissenters|dissenters]], and around the age of 14, he was sent to [[Charles Morton (educator)|Charles Morton's]] [[Dissenting academies|dissenting academy]] at [[Newington Green]], then a village just north of London, where he is believed to have attended the [[Newington Green Unitarian Church|Dissenting church there]].<ref>[http://www.gradesaver.com/author/daniel-defoe/ Biography of Daniel Defoe (1659?–1731)]. Retrieved 1 August 2013.</ref><ref>"Defoe in Stoke Newington". Arthur Secord, P.M.L.A. Vol. 66, p. 211, 1951. Cited in Thorncroft, p. 9, who identifies him as "an American scholar".</ref> He lived on Church Street, Stoke Newington, at what is now nos. 95–103.<ref name="Council 2020">{{cite web |last=London County Council |date=6 October 2020 |title=Daniel Defoe – Blue Plaques |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/daniel-defoe/ |access-date=13 October 2020 |website=English Heritage}}</ref> During this period, the English government persecuted those who chose to worship outside the established [[Church of England]].

== Business career ==
Defoe entered the world of business as a general merchant, dealing at different times in hosiery, general woollen goods, and wine. His ambitions were great and he was able to buy a country estate and a ship (as well as [[civet]]s to make perfume), though he was rarely out of debt. On 1 January 1684, Defoe married Mary Tuffley at [[St Botolph's Aldgate]].<ref name="Novak 2001">{{Cite book |last=Novak |first=Maximillian |url=https://archive.org/details/danieldefoemaste00maxi |title=Daniel Defoe: master of fictions: his life and ideas |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-19-926154-3 |location=Oxford; New York |oclc=51963527 |url-access=registration}}</ref> She was the daughter of a London merchant, and brought with her a [[dowry]] of £3,700—{{inflation|UK|3700|1684|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-4}}.{{inflation/fn|UK}} Given his debts and political difficulties, the marriage may have been troubled, but it lasted 47 years and produced eight children.<ref name="autogenerated2006"/>

In 1685, Defoe joined the ill-fated [[Monmouth Rebellion]] but gained a pardon, by which he escaped the [[Bloody Assizes]] of Judge [[George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys|George Jeffreys]]. Queen [[Mary II]] and her husband [[William III of England|William III]] were jointly crowned in 1689, and Defoe became one of William's close allies and a secret agent.<ref name="autogenerated2006"/> Some of the new policies led to conflict with France, thus damaging prosperous trade relationships for Defoe.<ref name="autogenerated2006"/> In 1692, he was arrested for debts of £700 and, in the face of total debts that may have amounted to £17,000, was forced to declare bankruptcy. He died with little wealth and evidently embroiled in lawsuits with the royal treasury.<ref name=":0"/>

Following his release from [[debtors' prison]], he probably travelled in Europe and Scotland,<ref name="Backscheider 1989">{{Cite book |last=Backscheider |first=Paula |title=Daniel Defoe : his life |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-8018-4512-3 |location=Baltimore |pages= |oclc=59911734}}</ref> and it may have been at this time that he traded wine to [[Cádiz]], [[Porto]] and [[Lisbon]]. By 1695, he was back in England, now formally using the name "Defoe" and serving as a "commissioner of the glass duty", responsible for collecting taxes on bottles. In 1696, he ran a tile and brick factory in what is now [[Tilbury]] in [[History of Essex|Essex]] and lived in the parish of [[Chadwell St Mary]] nearby.

== Writing ==
As many as 545 titles have been attributed to Defoe, including satirical poems, political and religious pamphlets, and volumes.

=== Pamphleteering and prison ===
[[File:Daniel Defoe in the Pillory.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|''Daniel Defoe in the Pillory'' ([[Eyre Crowe (painter)|Eyre Crowe]], 1862)]]

Defoe's first notable publication was ''[[An Essay Upon Projects]]'', a series of proposals for social and economic improvement, published in 1697. From 1697 to 1698, he defended the right of King [[William III of England|William III]] to a [[Standing Army Controversy|standing army]] during disarmament, after the [[Treaty of Ryswick]] (1697) had ended the [[Nine Years' War]] (1688–1697). His most successful poem, ''[[The True-Born Englishman]]'' (1701), defended William against [[xenophobic]] attacks from his political enemies in England, and English anti-immigration sentiments more generally. In 1701, Defoe presented the ''Legion's Memorial'' to [[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer|Robert Harley]], then [[Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)|Speaker of the House of Commons]]—and his subsequent employer—while flanked by a guard of sixteen gentlemen of quality. It demanded the release of the Kentish petitioners, who had asked Parliament to support the king in an imminent war against France.

The death of William III in 1702 once again created a political upheaval, as the king was replaced by [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]] who immediately began her offensive against [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|Nonconformists]].<ref name="autogenerated2006"/> Defoe was a natural target, and his pamphleteering and political activities resulted in his arrest and placement in a [[pillory]] on 31 July 1703, principally on account of his December 1702 pamphlet entitled ''[[The Shortest Way with the Dissenters|The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters; Or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church]]'', purporting to argue for their extermination.<ref>{{cite web |author=Defoe |first=Daniel |year=1702 |title=The shortest way with the Dissenters |url=http://www.bartleby.com/27/12.html |access-date=18 September 2010}}</ref> In it, he ruthlessly satirised both the [[high church]] [[Tories (British political party)|Tories]] and those [[Dissenter]]s who hypocritically practised so-called "[[occasional conformity]]", such as his [[Stoke Newington]] neighbour Sir [[Thomas Abney]]. It was published anonymously, but the true authorship was quickly discovered and Defoe was arrested.<ref name="autogenerated2006"/> He was charged with seditious libel and found guilty in a trial at the [[Old Bailey]] in front of the notoriously sadistic judge [[Salathiel Lovell]].<ref name="Letters to John Law">{{Cite book |last=Adams |first=Gavin John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=espxkAw-5bsC&pg=PR53 |title=Letters to John Law |publisher=Newton Page |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-934619-08-7 |pages=liii–lv |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102074401/http://books.google.com/books?id=espxkAw-5bsC&pg=PR53 |archive-date=2 January 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Lovell sentenced him to a punitive fine of 200 [[Mark (currency)|marks]] (£336 then, £{{Format price|{{Inflation|UK|336|1703}}}} in {{inflation/year|UK}}{{Inflation/fn|UK}}), to public humiliation in a [[pillory]], and to an indeterminate length of imprisonment which would end only upon the discharge of the punitive fine.<ref name="Letters to John Law"/> According to legend, the publication of his poem ''Hymn to the Pillory'' caused his audience at the pillory to throw flowers instead of the customary harmful and noxious objects and to drink to his health. The truth of this story is questioned by most scholars,{{why|date=January 2024}} although [[John Robert Moore]] later said that "no man in England but Defoe ever stood in the pillory and later rose to eminence among his fellow men".<ref name=rich/>
{{Quote box
 |quote = <poem>
Wherever God erects a house of prayer,
The Devil always builds a chapel there:
And 'twill be found, upon examination,
The latter has the largest congregation
</poem>
 |source = Defoe's ''[[The True-Born Englishman]]'', 1701
}}

After his three days in the pillory, Defoe went into [[Newgate Prison]]. [[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer]], brokered his release in exchange for Defoe's cooperation as an intelligence agent for the Tories. In exchange for such cooperation with the rival political side, Harley paid some of Defoe's outstanding debts, improving his financial situation considerably.<ref name="autogenerated2006"/>

Within a week of his release from prison, Defoe witnessed the [[Great Storm of 1703]], which raged through the night of 26/27 November. It caused severe damage to London and [[Bristol]], uprooted millions of trees, and killed more than 8,000 people, mostly at sea. The event became the subject of Defoe's ''[[The Storm (Daniel Defoe)|The Storm]]'' (1704), which includes a collection of witness accounts of the tempest.<ref>''The Storm: or, a collection of the most remarkable casualties and disasters which happen'd in the late dreadful tempest, both by sea and land''. London: 1704.</ref> Many regard it as one of the world's first examples of modern journalism.<ref>[[John J. Miller (journalist)|John J. Miller]] (13 August 2011) [https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111904800304576476142821212156?KEYWORDS=masterpiece "Writing Up a Storm"], ''The Wall Street Journal''.</ref>

In the same year, he set up his [[Periodical literature|periodical]] ''A Review of the Affairs of France'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Morgan |first=William Thomas |date=1940 |title=Defoe's Review as a Historical Source |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1874898 |journal=The Journal of Modern History |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=221–232 |doi=10.1086/236459 |jstor=1874898 |issn=0022-2801}}</ref> which supported the [[Harley Ministry]], chronicling the events of the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] (1702–1714). The ''Review'' ran three times a week without interruption until 1713. Defoe was amazed that a man as gifted as Harley left vital state papers lying in the open, and warned that he was almost inviting an unscrupulous clerk to commit treason; his warnings were fully justified by the [[William Gregg (clerk and spy)|William Gregg]] affair.

When Harley was ousted from the ministry in 1708, Defoe continued writing the ''Review'' to support [[Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin|Godolphin]], then again to support Harley and the [[Tories (British political party)|Tories]] in the Tory ministry of 1710–1714. The Tories fell from power with the death of [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]], but Defoe continued doing intelligence work for the [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]] government, writing "Tory" pamphlets that undermined the Tory point of view.<ref name="autogenerated2006"/>

Not all of Defoe's pamphlet writing was political. One pamphlet was originally published anonymously, entitled ''[[The Apparition of Mrs. Veal|A True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs. Veal the Next Day after her Death to One Mrs. Bargrave at Canterbury The 8th of September, 1705]]''. It deals with the interaction between the spiritual realm and the physical realm and was most likely written in support of [[Charles Drelincourt]]'s ''The Christian Defence against the Fears of Death'' (1651). It describes Mrs. Bargrave's encounter with her old friend Mrs. Veal after she had died. It is clear from this piece and other writings that the political portion of Defoe's life was by no means his only focus.

=== Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707 ===
{{more citations needed section|date=July 2017}}<!--lots of paragraphs without citations-->

[[File:Defoe 1709 The History Of The Union Of Great Britain.JPG|thumb|Title page from Daniel Defoe's: ''The History of the Union of Great Britain'' dated 1709 and printed in Edinburgh by the Heirs of Anderson]]
In despair during his imprisonment for the seditious libel case, Defoe wrote to [[William Paterson (banker)|William Paterson]], the London Scot and founder of the [[Bank of England]] and part instigator of the [[Darien scheme]], who was in the confidence of [[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer]], leading minister and spymaster in the [[Governance of England|English government]]. Harley accepted Defoe's services and released him in 1703. Defoe immediately published ''The Review'', which appeared weekly, then three times a week, written mostly by himself. This was the main mouthpiece of the English Government promoting the [[Acts of Union 1707|Act of Union 1707]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://theses.ncl.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/10443/165/1/downie76.pdf |title=Robert Harley and the Press |last=Downie |first=J. A. |website=University of Newcastle eTheses |publisher=University of Newcastle |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190125183319/https://theses.ncl.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/10443/165/1/downie76.pdf |archive-date=25 January 2019 |access-date=24 January 2019}}</ref>

Defoe began his campaign in ''The Review'' and other pamphlets aimed at English opinion, claiming that it would end the threat from the north, gaining for the Treasury an "inexhaustible treasury of men", a valuable new market increasing the power of England. By September 1706, Harley ordered Defoe to travel to [[Edinburgh]] as a secret agent, and to secure acquiescence by using "underhand methods to predispose Scots' opinion in favour of"<ref name="Somerset">{{cite book |last=Somerset |first=Anne |author-link=Lady Anne Somerset |date=2012 |title=Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion |location=London |publisher=William Collins |page=313 |isbn=978-0-00-720376-5}}</ref> the [[Treaty of Union]]. He was conscious of the risk to himself. Thanks to books such as ''The Letters of Daniel Defoe'',<ref>{{cite book |last=Defoe |first=Daniel |date=1955| editor-last=Healey |editor-first=George Harris| title=The Letters of Daniel Defoe |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780198786689}}</ref> far more is known about his activities than is usual with such agents.

Defoe's first reports included vivid descriptions of violent demonstrations against the Union. "A Scots rabble is the worst of its kind", he reported. Defoe "became fearful of being [[lynched]] after a threatening crowd surged up the High Street shouting 'No Union! No English dogs!{{'"}}<ref name="Somerset"/> Years later [[Sir John Clerk, 2nd Baronet|John Clerk of Penicuik]], a leading Unionist, wrote in his memoirs that it was not known at the time that Defoe had been sent by Godolphin:

{{blockquote|to give a faithful account to him from time to time how everything past here. He was therefor<!--sic--> a spy among us, but not known to be such, otherways the Mob of [[Edinburgh|Edin.]]<!--sic--> had pull him to pieces.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clerk |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/memoirslifesirj01clergoog |title=Memoirs of the life of Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, baronet, baron of the Exchequer, extracted by himself from his own journals, 1676–1755 |date=1892 |publisher=Scottish Historical Society |editor-last=Gray |editor-first=John Miller |location=Edinburgh |pages=63–64}} In a side-note at this point, Clerk recommends Defoe's ''History of the Union of Great Britain'': "This History of the Union deserves to be read. It was published in folio. There is not one fact in it which I can challenge".</ref>|sign=|source=}}

Defoe was a [[Presbyterian]] who had suffered in England for his convictions, and as such he was accepted as an adviser to the [[General Assembly of the Church of Scotland]] and committees of the [[Parliament of Scotland]]. He told Harley that he was "privy to all their folly" but "Perfectly unsuspected as with corresponding with anybody in England". He was then able to influence the proposals that were put to Parliament and reported,

{{poemquote|Having had the honour to be always sent for the committee to whom these amendments were referrèd,
I have had the good fortune to break their measures in two particulars via the bounty on Corn and
proportion of the Excise.}}

For Scotland, he used different arguments, even the opposite of those which he used in England, usually ignoring the English doctrine of the [[Parliamentary sovereignty in the United Kingdom|Sovereignty of Parliament]], for example, telling the Scots that they could have complete confidence in the guarantees in the Treaty. Some of his pamphlets were purported to be written by Scots, misleading even reputable historians into quoting them as evidence of Scottish opinion of the time. The same is true of a massive history of the Union which Defoe published in 1709 and which some historians still treat as a valuable contemporary source for their own works. Defoe took pains to give his history an air of objectivity by giving some space to arguments against the Union, but always kept the last word for himself.

He disposed of the main Union opponent, [[Andrew Fletcher (patriot)|Andrew Fletcher]] of [[East Saltoun and West Saltoun|Saltoun]], by ignoring him. Nor does he account for the deviousness of the [[James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton|Duke of Hamilton]], the official leader of the various factions opposed to the Union, who seemingly betrayed his former colleagues when he switched to the Unionist/Government side in the decisive final stages of the debate.

==== Aftermath ====
In 1709, Defoe authored a lengthy book entitled ''The History of the Union of Great Britain'', an Edinburgh publication printed by the Heirs of Anderson.<ref>Defoe, Daniel (1709). [https://truescans.com/BeginnersFolder/Defoe.htm ''The History of the Union of Great Britain'']. Edinburgh: Heirs of Anderson – via TrueScans. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250713035432/https://truescans.com/BeginnersFolder/Defoe.htm|date=2025-07-13}}.</ref> Defoe is cited twice in the book as its author,<ref>[http://truescans.com/BeginnersFolder/Images/Defoe_1709/DSCN9162.JPG First Defoe book author reference – cited as DANIEL DEFOE] at TrueScans. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430012206/http://truescans.com/BeginnersFolder/Images/Defoe_1709/DSCN9162.JPG|date=2023-04-30}}.</ref><ref>[http://truescans.com/BeginnersFolder/Images/Defoe_1709/DSCN9166.JPG Second Defoe book author reference – cited as D. DE FOE] at TrueScans. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250713035434/https://truescans.com/BeginnersFolder/Images/Defoe_1709/DSCN9166.JPG|date=2025-07-13}}.</ref>{{full citation needed|reason=Source of these scans is unclear. Are these the same book? Different printings/publishers?|date=May 2026}} and gives details of the events leading up to the [[Acts of Union 1707]], dating as far back as 6 December 1604, when King [[James VI and I|James I]] was presented with a proposal for unification.<ref>[http://truescans.com/BeginnersFolder/Images/Defoe_1709/DSCN9167A.JPG Book reference to 6th December of 1604] at TrueScans. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250810145358/https://truescans.com/BeginnersFolder/Images/Defoe_1709/DSCN9167A.JPG|date=2025-08-10}}.</ref>{{full citation needed|reason=Same again for this page|date=May 2026}} This so-called "first draft" for unification took place just a little over 100 years before the signing of the 1707 accord.

Defoe made no attempt to explain why the same Parliament of Scotland which was so vehemently in favour of remaining independent from 1703 to 1705 became so supine in 1706. He received very little reward from his paymasters and no recognition for his services by the government. He made use of his Scottish experience to write his ''Tour thro' the whole Island of Great Britain'', published in 1726, where he admitted that the increase of trade and population in Scotland which he had predicted as a consequence of the Union was "not the case, but rather the contrary".

[[File:Glasgow Bridge c.1758.JPG|thumb|upright=1.4|Glasgow Bridge as Defoe might have seen it in the 18th century]]
Defoe's description of [[Glasgow]] (Glaschu) as a "Dear Green Place" has often been misquoted as a [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]] translation for the town's name. The Gaelic ''Glas'' could mean grey or green, while ''chu'' means dog or hollow. ''Glaschu'' probably means "Green Hollow". The "Dear Green Place", like much of Scotland, was a hotbed of unrest against the Union. The local [[St George's Tron Church|Tron]] [[Minister (Christianity)|minister]] urged his congregation "to up and anent for the City of God".

The "Dear Green Place" and "City of God" required government troops to put down the rioters tearing up copies of the Treaty at almost every [[mercat cross]] in Scotland. When Defoe visited in the mid-1720s, he claimed that the hostility towards his party was "because they were English and because of the Union, which they were almost universally exclaimed against".<ref>{{cite book|title=Essential Scots and the Idea of Unionism in Anglo-Scottish Literature, 1603–1832|first=Rivka|last=Swenson|page=58|date=2015|edition=ebook|publisher=Bucknell University Press}}</ref>

=== Late writing ===
The extent and particulars are widely contested concerning Defoe's writing in the period from the Tory fall in 1714 to the publication of ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'' in 1719. Defoe comments on the tendency to attribute tracts of uncertain authorship to him in his apologia ''Appeal to Honour and Justice'' (1715), a defence of his part in Harley's Tory ministry (1710–1714). Other works that anticipate his novelistic career include ''The Family Instructor'' (1715), a conduct manual on religious duty; ''Minutes of the Negotiations of Monsr. Mesnager'' (1717), in which he impersonates [[Nicolas Mesnager]], the French plenipotentiary who negotiated the [[Treaty of Utrecht]] (1713); and ''A Continuation of the [[Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy]]'' (1718), a satire of European politics and religion, ostensibly written by a [[Muslim]] in Paris.

[[File:Daniel Defoe monument Bunhill Fields.jpg|thumb|upright|Memorial to "Daniel De-Foe", [[Bunhill Fields]], [[City Road]], [[Borough of Islington]], London]]

From 1719 to 1724, Defoe published the novels for which he is famous (see below). In the final decade of his life, he also wrote conduct manuals, including ''Religious Courtship'' (1722), ''The Complete English Tradesman'' (1726) and ''The New Family Instructor'' (1727). He published a number of books decrying the breakdown of the social order, such as ''The Great Law of Subordination Considered'' (1724) and ''Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business'' (1725) and works on the supernatural, like ''[[The Political History of the Devil]]'' (1726), ''A System of Magick'' (1727) and ''An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions'' (1727). His works on foreign travel and trade include ''A General History of Discoveries and Improvements'' (1727) and ''Atlas Maritimus and Commercialis'' (1728). Perhaps his most significant work, apart from the novels, is ''[[A Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain]]'' (1724–1727), which provided a panoramic survey of British trade on the eve of the [[Industrial Revolution]].

==== ''The Complete English Tradesman'' ====
Published in 1726, ''The Complete English Tradesman'' is an example of Defoe's political works. In the work, Defoe discussed the role of the [[Merchant|tradesman]] in England in comparison to tradesmen internationally, arguing that the British system of trade is far superior.<ref name=defoe1/> Defoe also implied that trade was the backbone of the [[Economy of the United Kingdom|British economy]]: "an estate's a pond, but a trade's a spring."<ref name="defoe1">{{cite book |last=Defoe |first=Daniel |title=The complete English tradesman, in familiar letters .. |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nnc1.0112322717 |publisher=Printed for George Ewing |publication-place=Dublin |year=1726 |oclc=36869195 |page=[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nnc1.0112322717?urlappend=%3Bseq=399%3Bownerid=27021597768393345-419 375] |hdl=2027/nnc1.0112322717 }}</ref> In the work, Defoe praised the practicality of trade not only within the economy but the social stratification as well. Defoe argued that most of the British [[gentry]] was at one time or another inextricably linked with the institution of trade, either through personal experience, marriage or genealogy.<ref name=defoe1/> Oftentimes younger members of noble families entered into trade, and marriages to a tradesman's daughter by a [[nobleman]] was also common. Overall, Defoe demonstrated a high respect for tradesmen, being one himself.

Not only did Defoe elevate individual British tradesmen to the level of [[gentleman]], but he praised the entirety of British trade as a superior system to other systems of trade.<ref name=defoe1/> Trade, Defoe argues, is a much better catalyst for social and economic change than war. Defoe also argued that through the expansion of the [[British Empire]] and British mercantile influence, Britain would be able to "increase commerce at home" through job creations and increased [[Consumption (economics)|consumption]].<ref name=defoe1/> He wrote in the work that increased consumption, by laws of supply and demand, increases production and in turn raises wages for the poor, thereby lifting part of British society further out of poverty.<ref name=defoe1/>

=== Novels ===
==== ''Robinson Crusoe'' ====
[[File:Daniel Defoe former house England.jpg|thumb|A house where Defoe once lived, near London, England]]
Published in 1719, when Defoe was in his late fifties,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Minto |first=William |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924013179902 |title=Daniel Defoe |publisher=Harper & Bros. |year=1879 |location=New York |language=en |oclc=562533988}}</ref> ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'' relates the story of a man's shipwreck on a desert island for twenty-eight years and his subsequent adventures. Throughout its episodic narrative, Crusoe's struggles with faith are apparent as he bargains with God in times of life-threatening crises, but time and again he turns his back after his deliverances. He is finally content with his lot in life, separated from society, following a more genuine conversion experience.

In the opening pages of ''[[The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe]]'', the author describes how Crusoe settled in [[Bedfordshire]], married and produced a family, and that when his wife died, he went off on these further adventures. Bedford is also the place where the brother of "H. F." in ''A Journal of the Plague Year'' retired to avoid the danger of the plague, so that by implication, if these works were not fiction, Defoe's family met Crusoe in Bedford, from whence the information in these books was gathered. Defoe went to school in Newington Green with a friend named Caruso.

The novel has been assumed to be based in part on the experience of the Scottish castaway [[Alexander Selkirk]], who spent four years stranded in the [[Juan Fernández Islands]],<ref name="autogenerated2006"/> before being rescued in 1709 by Captain [[Woodes Rogers]], who Defoe knew.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-real-robinson-crusoe-74877644/ |title=The Real Robinson Crusoe |first=Bruce |last=Selcraig|website=smithsonianmag.com |access-date=8 March 2026|date=15 July 2005}}</ref> The island Selkirk lived on, Más a Tierra (Closer to Land) was renamed [[Robinson Crusoe Island]] in 1966. It has also been suggested that Defoe was also inspired by a translation of a book by the [[Al-Andalus|Andalusian-Arab]] Muslim polymath [[Ibn Tufail]], who was known as "Abubacer" in Europe. The Latin edition was entitled ''[[Hayy ibn Yaqdhan|Philosophus Autodidactus]]'';<ref>Nawal Muhammad Hassan (1980), ''Hayy bin Yaqzan and Robinson Crusoe: A study of an early Arabic impact on English literature'', Al-Rashid House for Publication.</ref><ref>Cyril Glassé (2001), ''The New Encyclopedia of Islam'', Rowman Altamira, p. 202, {{ISBN|0-7591-0190-6}}.</ref><ref name="Amber">{{Cite journal |last=Haque |first=Amber |year=2004 |title=Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists |journal=Journal of Religion and Health |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=357–377 [369] |doi=10.1007/s10943-004-4302-z |jstor=27512819 |s2cid=38740431}}</ref><ref name="Wainwright">Martin Wainwright (22 March 2003) [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/mar/22/featuresreviews.guardianreview1 Desert island scripts], ''[[The Guardian]]''.</ref> [[Simon Ockley]] published an English translation in 1708, entitled ''The improvement of human reason, exhibited in the life of Hai ebn Yokdhan''.

==== ''Captain Singleton'' ====
Defoe's next novel was ''[[Captain Singleton]]'' (1720), an adventure story whose first half covers a traversal of Africa which anticipated subsequent discoveries by [[David Livingstone]] and whose second half taps into the contemporary fascination with [[piracy]]. The novel has been commended for its sensitive depiction of the close relationship between the hero and his religious mentor, [[Quaker]] William Walters. Its description of the geography of Africa and some of its fauna does not use the language or knowledge of a fiction writer and suggests an eyewitness experience.

==== ''Memoirs of a Cavalier'' ====
''[[Memoirs of a Cavalier]]'' (1720) is set during the [[Thirty Years' War]] and the [[English Civil War]].

==== ''A Journal of the Plague Year'' ====
''[[A Journal of the Plague Year]]'', published in 1722, can be read both as novel and as nonfiction. It is an account of the [[Great Plague of London]] in 1665, which is undersigned by the initials "H. F.", suggesting the author's uncle Henry Foe as its primary source. It is a historical account of the events based on extensive research and written as if by an eyewitness, even though Defoe was only about five years old when it occurred.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Zimmerman |first=Everett |title=H. F.'s Meditations: A Journal of the Plague Year |journal=PMLA |date=1972 |volume=87 |issue=3 |pages=417–423 |doi=10.2307/460900 |jstor=460900 |s2cid=164093586}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Mayer |first=Robert |title=The Reception of a Journal of the Plague Year and the Nexus of Fiction and History in the Novel |journal=ELH |date=1990 |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=529–555 |doi=10.2307/2873233 |jstor=2873233}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Seager |first=Nicholas |title=Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics: Epistemology and Fiction in Defoe's "A Journal of the Plague Year" |journal=Modern Language Review |date=2008 |volume=103 |issue=3 |pages=639–653 |doi=10.1353/mlr.2008.0112 |id={{Gale|A181463661}} {{Project MUSE|824837}} |jstor=20467902 |s2cid=246643865}}</ref><ref>Nicholson, Watson, ''The Historical Sources of Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year'', Boston: The Stratford Co., 1919.</ref>

==== ''Colonel Jack'' ====
''[[Colonel Jack]]'' (1722) follows an orphaned boy from a life of poverty and crime to prosperity in the colonies, military and marital imbroglios, and religious conversion, driven by a problematic notion of becoming a "gentleman".

==== ''Moll Flanders'' ====
Also in 1722, Defoe wrote ''[[Moll Flanders]]'', another first-person [[picaresque novel]] of the fall and eventual redemption, both material and spiritual, of a lone woman in 17th-century England. The titular heroine appears as a whore, bigamist and thief, lives in [[Liberty of the Mint|The Mint]], commits adultery and incest, and yet manages to retain the reader's sympathy. Her savvy manipulation of both men and wealth earns her a life of trials but ultimately an ending in reward. Although Moll struggles with the morality of some of her actions and decisions, religion seems to be far from her concerns throughout most of her story. However, like Robinson Crusoe, she finally repents. ''Moll Flanders'' is an important work in the development of the novel, as it challenged the common perception of femininity and gender roles in 18th-century British society.<ref name="Novak 2001"/> Although it was not intended as a work of [[erotica]], later generations came to view it as such.<ref name="historyextra">{{Cite web |url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/moll-the-life-and-times-of-moll-flanders/ |title=Moll: The Life and Times of Moll Flanders |website=History Extra |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428084347/https://www.historyextra.com/period/moll-the-life-and-times-of-moll-flanders/ |archive-date=28 April 2019 |access-date=30 May 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Kibbie |first=Ann Louise |title=Monstrous Generation: The Birth of Capital in Defoe's Moll Flanders and Roxana |journal=PMLA |date=1995 |volume=110 |issue=5 |pages=1023–1034 |doi=10.2307/463027 |jstor=463027 |s2cid=163996973}}</ref>

==== ''Roxana'' ====
Defoe's final novel, ''[[Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress]]'' (1724), which narrates the moral and spiritual decline of a high society courtesan, differs from other Defoe works because the main character does not exhibit a conversion experience, even though she claims to be a penitent later in her life, at the time that she is relating her story.<ref>{{cite book|title=Dangerous Women, Libertine Epicures, and the Rise of Sensibility, 1670–1730|first=Laura|last=Linker|publisher=Taylor & Francis|edition=ebook|date=2016|page=118}}</ref>

==== Patterns ====
In Defoe's writings, especially in his fiction, are traits that can be seen across his works. Defoe was well known for his [[didacticism]], with most of his works aiming to convey a message of some kind to the readers (typically a moral one, stemming from his religious background).<ref>{{cite thesis |id={{ProQuest|302359591}} |last1=Kropf |first1=Carl Raymond |year=1968 |title=Defoe as a Puritan Novelist}}</ref> Connected to Defoe's didacticism is his use of the genre of [[spiritual autobiography]], particularly in ''Robinson Crusoe''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Starr |first1=G. A. |title=Defoe & spiritual autobiography |year=1971 |orig-year=1965 |publisher=Gordian Press |isbn=0-87752-138-7 |location=New York |oclc=219753}}{{page needed|date=November 2022}}</ref> Another common feature of Defoe's fictional works is that he claimed they were true stories of their subjects.

=== Attribution and de-attribution ===
Defoe is known to have used at least 198 [[pen name]]s.<ref>"The appendices offer even more: a listing of Voltaire's and Daniel Defoe's numerous pseudonyms (178 and 198, respectively)&nbsp;..." in ''A Dictionary of Pseudonyms and Their Origins, with Stories of Name Changes'', 3rd ed., Mcfarland & Co Inc Pub., 1998, {{ISBN|0-7864-0423-X}}.</ref> It was a very common practice in eighteenth-century novel publishing to initially publish works under a [[pen name]], with most other authors at the time publishing their works anonymously.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Vareschi |first=Mark |title=Attribution and Repetition: The Case of Defoe and the Circulating Library |journal=Eighteenth-Century Life |date=1 April 2012 |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=36–59 |doi=10.1215/00982601-1548027 |s2cid=145603239}}</ref> As a result of the anonymous ways in which most of his works were published, it has been a challenge for scholars over the years to properly credit Defoe for all of the works that he wrote in his lifetime. If counting only works that Defoe published under his own name, or his known pen name "the author of the True-Born Englishman", about 75 works can be attributed to him.<ref name=Oxford>{{cite book |title=The Oxford Handbook of Danirel Defoe |chapter=Attribution and the Defoe Canon |first=Benjamin F. |last=Pauley |pages=629–644 |date=2023}}</ref>

Beyond these 75 works, scholars have used a variety of strategies to determine what other works should be attributed to Defoe. Writer [[George Chalmers (antiquarian)|George Chalmers]] was the first to begin the work of attributing anonymously published works to Defoe. In ''History of the Union'', he created an expanded list with over a hundred titles that he attributed to Defoe, alongside twenty additional works that he designated as "Books which are supposed to be De Foe's".<ref name=":1">{{cite journal |last=Novak |first=Maximillian E. |title=The Defoe Canon: Attribution and De-Attribution |journal=Huntington Library Quarterly |date=1996 |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=83–104 |doi=10.2307/3817908 |jstor=3817908}}</ref> Chalmers included works in his canon of Defoe that were particularly in line with his style and way of thinking, and ultimately attributed 174 works to Defoe.<ref name=Oxford /> Many of the attributions of Defoe's novels came long after his death. Notably, ''Moll Flanders'' and ''Roxana'' were published anonymously for over fifty years until Francis Noble named Daniel Defoe on their title pages in edition publication in 1775 and 1774.<ref>{{Citation |last=Vareschi |first=Mark |chapter=Anonymous Defoe |date=2023 |chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/daniel-defoe-in-context/anonymous-defoe/BA155651248831E22ED374922A685413 |title=Daniel Defoe in Context |pages=145–152 |editor-last=Rivero |editor-first=Albert J. |access-date=2023-11-22 |series=Literature in Context |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-83671-5 |editor2-last=Justice |editor2-first=George}}</ref>

Biographer [[P. N. Furbank]] and W. R. Owens built upon this canon, also relying on what they believed could be Defoe's work, without a means to be absolutely certain.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Furbank |first=P. N. |title=Defoe de-attributions: a critique of J.R. Moore's Checklist |last2=Owens |first2=W. R. |last3=Moore |first3=John Robert |date=1994 |publisher=Hambledon Press |isbn=978-1-85285-128-6 |location=London; Rio Grande, Ohio}}</ref> In the ''Cambridge History of English Literature'', the section on Defoe by author [[William Peterfield Trent|William P.&nbsp;Trent]] attributes 370 works to Defoe. J.&nbsp;R.&nbsp;Moore generated the largest list of Defoe's work, with approximately 550 works that he attributed to Defoe.<ref name=":1"/>

== Death ==
[[File:Bunhill Fields, London 13.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Bunhill Fields]] monument detail]]

Defoe died on 24 April 1731, in Ropemakers Alley, not far from where he was born in Cripplegate, probably while in hiding from his creditors.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://islingtonguidedwalks.com/daniel-defoe/|title=Daniel Defoe|date=13 November 2022}}</ref> He was often in debtors' prison.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rogers |first=Pat |year=1971 |title=Defoe in the Fleet Prison |journal=The Review of English Studies |volume=22 |issue=88 |pages=451–455 |doi=10.1093/res/XXII.88.451 |jstor=513276}}</ref> The cause of his death was labelled as lethargy, but he probably experienced a stroke.<ref name=":0"/> He was interred in [[Bunhill Fields]] (today Bunhill Fields Burial and Gardens), just outside the medieval boundaries of the City of London, in what is now the [[Borough of Islington]], where a monument was erected to his memory in 1870.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kennedy |first=Maev |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/feb/22/bunhill-fields-bunyan-defoe-blake |title=Burial ground of Bunyan, Defoe and Blake earns protected status |date=22 February 2011 |work=The Guardian |access-date=21 January 2015}}</ref> A street in the [[The Bronx|Bronx]], New York, is named in his honour (De Foe Place).<ref>{{cite book |last=McNamara |first=John |author-link= |date=1991 |title=History in Asphalt |url= |location=Harrison, NY |publisher=Harbor Hill Books |page=65 |isbn=0-941980-15-4}}</ref>

== Selected works ==
=== Novels ===
* ''[[The Consolidator|The Consolidator, or Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the Moon: Translated from the Lunar Language]]'' (1705)<ref name=SFE>[http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/defoe_daniel "Defoe, Daniel"]. ''[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]''. Online edition (3rd ed., 2011). Biographical entry by editors John Clute and Peter Nicholls. Retrieved 12 September 2019.</ref>
* ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'' (1719) – originally published in two volumes:<ref name=SFE/>
** ''The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years [...]''
** ''[[The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe]]: Being the Second and Last Part of His Life [...]''
* ''[[Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe|Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe: With his Vision of the Angelick World]]'' (1720)
* ''[[Captain Singleton]]'' (1720)
* ''[[Memoirs of a Cavalier]]'' (1720)
* ''[[A Journal of the Plague Year]]'' (1722)
* ''[[Colonel Jack]]'' (1722)
* ''[[Moll Flanders]]'' (1722)
* ''[[Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress]]'' (1724)
* ''[[George Roberts (mariner)|The Four Years Voyages of Capt. George Roberts]]'' (1726) – disputed both in its fictional status and in Defoe's authorship<ref name="Roberts-Annotated">{{cite book |last1=Roberts |first1=George |last2=Defoe |first2=Daniel |editor1-last=McLaine |editor1-first=Matt |title=The Four Years Voyages of Captain George Roberts (Annotated): Being a Series of Uncommon Events |date=1726 |publisher=KDP |pages=446 |edition=2024 |url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DQ96JGCW |access-date=21 April 2025}}</ref>

=== Nonfiction ===
* ''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73564 The Buccaneers and Marooners of America]'' (1684) but this is a later (1891) illustrated version with details of the book's history.
* ''[[An Essay Upon Projects]]'' (1697) – subsections of the text include: "The History of Projects", "Of Projectors", "Of Banks", "Of the Highways", "Of Assurances", "Of Friendly Societies", "The Proposal is for a Pension Office," "Of Wagering", "Of Fools", "A Charity-Lottery", "Of Bankrupts", "Of Academies" (including a section proposing an academy for women), "Of a Court Merchant", and "Of Seamen".
* ''[[The Storm (Daniel Defoe)|The Storm]]'' (1704) – describes the worst storm ever to hit Britain in recorded times. Includes eyewitness accounts.
* ''Atlantis Major'' (1711)
* ''The Family Instructor'' (1715)
* ''Memoirs of the Church of Scotland'' (1717)
* ''The History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard'' (1724) – describing Sheppard's life of crime and concluding with the miraculous escapes from prison that made him a public sensation.
* ''A Narrative of All The Robberies, Escapes, &c. of John Sheppard'' (1724) – written by or taken down from Sheppard himself in the condemned cell before he was hanged for theft, apparently by way of conclusion to Defoe's work. According to the Introduction to Volume 16 of the works of Defoe published by J. M. Dent in 1895, Sheppard handed the manuscript to the publisher Applebee from the prisoners' cart as he was taken away to be hanged. Defoe's edition of the text includes corrections of factual details and an explanation of how Sheppard's escapes from prison were achieved.
* ''[[A Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain]]'' (1724–1727)
* ''A New Voyage Round the World'' (1724)
* ''[[The Political History of the Devil]]'' (1726)
* ''The Complete English Tradesman'' (1726)
* ''[[Conjugal Lewdness|A Treatise Concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed]]...'' (1727)
* ''[[A Plan of the English Commerce]]'' (1728) – describes how the English woolen textile [[Industrialisation|industrial base]] was developed by the [[protectionism|protectionist]] measures of the [[House of Tudor|Tudor]] monarchs, especially [[Henry VII of England]] and [[Elizabeth I]], including high [[tariff]]s on the importation of finished woollen goods, high taxes on raw wool leaving England, bringing in artisans skilled in wool textile manufacturing from the [[Low Countries]], selective [[government-granted monopoly]] rights, and government-sponsored [[industrial espionage]].

=== Pamphlets or essays in prose ===
* ''The Poor Man's Plea'' (1698)
* ''[[Kentish Petition of 1701|The History of the Kentish Petition]]'' (1701)
* ''[[The Shortest Way with the Dissenters]]'' (1702)
* ''[[The Great Law of Subordination Consider'd]]'' (1704)
* ''Giving Alms No Charity, and Employing the Poor'' (1704)
* ''[[The Apparition of Mrs. Veal]]'' (1706)
* ''An Appeal to Honour and Justice, Tho' it be of his Worst Enemies, by Daniel Defoe, Being a True Account of His Conduct in Publick Affairs'' (1715)
* ''A Vindication of the Press: Or, An Essay on the Usefulness of Writing, on Criticism, and the Qualification of Authors'' (1718)
* ''[[Every-body's Business, Is No-body's Business]]'' (1725)
* ''[[The Protestant Monastery]]'' (1726)
* ''[[Parochial Tyranny]]'' (1727)
* ''[[Augusta Triumphans]]'' (1728)
* ''[[Second Thoughts are Best]]'' (1729)
* ''An Essay Upon Literature'' (1726)
* ''[[Mere Nature Delineated]]'' (1726)
* ''[[Conjugal Lewdness]]'' (1727) – Anti-Contraception Essay

=== Pamphlets or essays in verse ===
* ''[[The True-Born Englishman]]: A Satyr'' (1701)
* ''Hymn to the Pillory'' (1703)
* ''An Essay on the Late Storm'' (1704)
* ''Jure Divino: a satyr'' (1706)

=== Some contested works attributed to Defoe ===
* ''A Friendly Epistle by way of reproof from one of the people called Quakers, to T. B., a dealer in many words'' (1715).
* ''[[The King of Pirates]]'' (1719) – purporting to be an account of the pirate [[Henry Avery]].
* ''The Pirate Gow'' (1725) – an account of [[John Gow]].
* ''[[A General History of the Pyrates]]'' (1724, 1725, 1726, 1828) – published in two volumes by Charles Rivington, who had a shop near [[St. Paul's Cathedral]], London. Published under the name of [[Captain Charles Johnson]], it sold in many editions.
* Captain Carleton's ''Memoirs of an English Officer'' (1728).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Baine |first=Rodney M. |title=Daniel Defoe and Captain Caneton's Memoirs of an English Officer |journal=Texas Studies in Literature and Language |date=1972 |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=613–627 |jstor=40755201}}</ref>
* ''[[Christian Davies|The life and adventures of Mrs. Christian Davies, commonly call'd Mother Ross]]'' (1740) – published anonymously; printed and sold by R. Montagu in London; and attributed to Defoe but more recently not accepted by Moore.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://collections.soane.org/b10155 |department=Catalog entry: in several campaigns under King William and the late Duke of Marlborough, in the quality of a foot-soldier and dragoon, gave many signal proofs of an unparallell'd courage and personal bravery. Taken from her own mouth when a pensioner of Chelsea-Hospital, and known to be true by many who were engaged in those great scenes of action. |title=The life and adventures of Mrs. Christian Davies, commonly call'd Mother Ross |website=Sir John Soane's Museum Collection Online |access-date=16 March 2019}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Apprentice complex]]
* [[Moubray House]]
* [[Robert Drury (sailor)]] – whose book has been suggested by some was written by Defoe

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|40em}}
* Backscheider, Paula R. ''Daniel Defoe: His Life'' (1989).
* Backscheider, Paula R. ''Daniel Defoe: Ambition and Innovation'' (UP of Kentucky, 2015).
* Baines, Paul. ''Daniel Defoe-Robinson Crusoe/Moll Flanders'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
* {{cite journal |last=Di Renzo |first=Anthony |title=The Complete English Tradesman: Daniel Defoe and the Emergence of Business Writing |journal=Journal of Technical Writing and Communication |date=October 1998 |volume=28 |issue=4 |pages=325–334 |doi=10.2190/TE72-JBN7-GNUT-BNUW |s2cid=219975268}}
* {{cite book |last=Fitzgerald |first=Brian |title=Daniel Defoe: A Study in Conflict |publisher=Secker & Warburg |publication-place=London |year=1954 |oclc=681522101 |url=https://archive.org/details/danieldefoestudy0000fitz_r6l2 |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}}
* {{cite book |last1=Furbank |first1=P. N. |last2=Owens |first2=W. R. |title=A Political Biography of Daniel Defoe |date=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-31567-4}}
* {{cite journal |last=Gollapudi |first=Aparna |title=Personhood, Property Rights, and the Child in John Locke's Two Treatises of Government and Daniel Defoe's Fiction |journal=Eighteenth-Century Fiction |date=2015 |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=25–58 |doi=10.3138/ecf.28.1.25 |s2cid=145261485 |id={{Project MUSE|595356}}}}
* Gregg, Stephen H. ''Defoe's Writings and Manliness: Contrary Men'' (Routledge, 2016).
* Guilhamet, Leon. ''Defoe and the Whig Novel: A Reading of the Major Fiction'' (U of Delaware Press, 2010).
* Hammond, John R. ed. ''A Defoe companion'' (Macmillan, 1993).
* {{cite journal |last=Marshall |first=Ashley |title=Fabricating Defoes: From Anonymous Hack to Master of Fictions |journal=Eighteenth-Century Life |date=2012 |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=1–35 |id={{Project MUSE|472272}} |doi=10.1215/00982601-1548018 |s2cid=144469998}}
* Novak, Maximillian E. ''Daniel Defoe: Master of Fictions: His Life and Ideas'' (2001) {{ISBN|978-0-19-812686-7}}
* {{cite journal |last=O'Brien |first=John |title=The Character of Credit: Defoe's "Lady Credit," The Fortunate Mistress, and the Resources of Inconsistency in Early Eighteenth-Century Britain |journal=ELH |date=1996 |volume=63 |issue=3 |pages=603–631 |id={{Project MUSE|11339}} |doi=10.1353/elh.1996.0030 |s2cid=162892432}}
* Novak, Maximillian E. ''Realism, myth, and history in Defoe's fiction'' (U of Nebraska Press, 1983).
* Richetti, John. ''The Life of Daniel Defoe: A Critical Biography'' (2015).
* {{Cite journal |last=Rogers |first=Pat |year=1971 |title=Defoe in the Fleet Prison |journal=The Review of English Studies |volume=22 |issue=88 |pages=451–455 |doi=10.1093/res/XXII.88.451 |jstor=513276}}
* Sutherland, J.R. ''Defoe'' (Taylor & Francis, 1950)
{{refend}}

=== Primary sources ===
* Curtis, Laura Ann, ed. ''The Versatile Defoe: An Anthology of Uncollected Writings by Daniel Defoe'', Rowman and Littlefield, 1979.
* Defoe, Daniel. ''The Best of Defoe's Review: An Anthology'', Columbia University Press, 1951.
* Philip Nicholas Furbank (1920-2014) with W. R. Owens, ''The canonization of Daniel Defoe'', Yale University Press, New Haven, 1988, 210 pages.
* Philip Nicholas Furbank and W. R. Owens, ''Defoe De-Attribution : Critique of J.R. Moore's Checklist'', A&C Black, 1994, 161 pages. ISBN 978-1852851286.
* Philip Nicholas Furbank and W. R. Owens, ''A Critical Biography of Daniel Defoe'', Pickering & Chatto, London, 1998, 319 pages. ISBN 978-1851963898.
* W. R. Owens and Philip Nicholas Furbank, eds.''The True-Born Englishman and Other Writings (by Daniel Defoe)'', Penguin Books, London, 1997, ISBN 978-0-14-043572-6. A collection of 13 pieces of Defoe, young and radical author, written between 1679 and 1706, including the verse satire on English chauvinism, "The True-Born Englishman", the satire on High Church intolerance and "An Essay Upon Projects".
* W. R. Owens and Philip Nicholas Furbank (General Editors) ''Political and Economic Writings of Daniel Defoe'', Pickering & Chatto, 2000, in eight volumes.
* W. R. Owens and Philip Nicholas Furbank (General Editors) ''Writings on Travel, Discovery, and History by Daniel Defoe'', Pickering & Chatto, 2001–2002 in eight volumes.
* W. R. Owens and Philip Nicholas Furbank, ''A Political Biography of Daniel Defoe'', Brookfield, Vt. : Pickering & Chatto, London, 2006, 277 pages.
* W. R. Owens and Philip Nicholas Furbank, General Editors of ''The Works of Daniel Defoe'', Pickering and Chatto, London, 44 Volumes Published between 2000 to 2009 (series of five sets of 8 or 10 volumes each).

== External links ==
{{Sister project links |wikt=no |commons=Category:Daniel Defoe |n=no |q=yes| s=Author:Daniel Defoe |author=no |b=no |v=no |d=yes}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/daniel-defoe}}
* [https://arheve.org/en/defoe-d Works by Daniel Defoe in the online library ARHEVE.org] and in the free [https://library.arheve.org/ ARHEVE app]
* {{Gutenberg author |id=204}}
* {{FadedPage|id=DeFoe, Daniel|name=Daniel DeFoe|author=yes}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Daniel Defoe}}
* {{Librivox author |id=895}}
* [https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/authors/pers00346.shtml Daniel Defoe] at the [https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/ Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive]
* [http://ufdc.ufl.edu/defoe Full online versions of various copies of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and the Robinsonades]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080117203855/http://www.literature.at/elib/index.php5?title=Daniel_Defoe_-_1660-1731#Information Full texts in German and English] – eLibrary Projekt (eLib)
* [http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/contents_page.jsp?t_id=Defoe The Journeys of Daniel Defoe around Britain] (from a Vision of Britain)
* {{cite EB9 |wstitle = Daniel Defoe |volume= VII |last=Saintsbury |first=George |authorlink=George Saintsbury | pages = 26–31 |short=1}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Defoe, Daniel | volume= 7 | pages = 927–931 |short= 1}}
* [http://www.geopoesia.ru/ru/main/stat-main/01-crusoe-en.html Russian toponyms in Daniel Defoe's novels]
* [http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n79-53974 Defoe, Daniel 1661?–1731 WorldCat Identity]
* [[iarchive:systemofmagic00defo|A System of Magick]]
* [http://aaronskirboll.com/ ''The Thief-Taker Hangings: How Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Wild, and Jack Sheppard Captivated London and Created the Celebrity Criminal'' by Aaron Skirboll]

{{Daniel Defoe|state=expanded}}
{{Robinson Crusoe}}
{{Pirates}}
{{Authority control}}

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