Daniel defoe family
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Daniel Defoe
An engraving of Daniel Defoe when he was about 43 years old. It was produced by the Flemish engraver Michael Vandergucht, after a painting by Jeremiah Taverner, and used as the frontispiece of Defoe’s 1703 book ‘A True Collection of the Writings of the Author of the True Born English-man’.
Since the 19th century Daniel Defoe has primarily been remembered as an author, in particular for his novels Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders and Roxana. His original ambition was to be a businessman but following bankruptcy, imprisonment and the pillory he transformed to a lonely and secretive writer of pamphlets and novels and a government spy. A committed Dissenter, he was highly opinionated, and during his lifetime was better-known for several of his satirical pamphlets, which often led him into trouble.
Daniel was the son of James and Alice Foe of the parish of St. Giles in Cripplegate, most likely born in 1660. His father was a tallow chandler and member of the Butchers’ Company in the City of London and Alice died when her son was still young. Da
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Kirkcudbright: Possibly Defoe's Least Favourite Place in Scotland |
Daniel Defoe lived from (probably) September 1660 to 26 April 1731. He is best known as the prolific author of between 300 and 500 literary and political works; as one of the creators of the popular English novel; and, especially, as the author of Robinson Crusoe. Less well known was the fact that he was also at different times a merchant, a manufacturer, a rebel, a marine insurer, a swindler, a convict, a spy, a journalist and a spin doctor.
Daniel Defoe was born Daniel Foe, probably in September 1660, the son of a family of Presbyterian dissenters in the parish of St Giles, London. He attended school at the Presbyterian Morton's Academy and his parents hoped he would become a Presbyterian Minister.
Instead Daniel went into business, adding the "De" to the start of his surname to make it sound more aristocratic and/or French. His activities rapidly expanded to include the breeding of civet cats for perfume manufacture; the ownership and oper
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Daniel Defoe
(1660-1731)
Who Was Daniel Defoe?
Daniel Defoe became a merchant and participated in several failing businesses, facing bankruptcy and aggressive creditors. He was also a prolific political pamphleteer which landed him in prison for slander. Late in life he turned his pen to fiction and wrote Robinson Crusoe, one of the most widely read and influential novels of all time.
Early Life
Daniel Foe, born circa 1660, was the son of James Foe, a London butcher. Daniel later changed his name to Daniel Defoe, wanting to sound more gentlemanly.
Defoe graduated from an academy at Newington Green, run by the Reverend Charles Morton. Not long after, in 1683, he went into business, having given up an earlier intent on becoming a dissenting minister. He traveled often, selling such goods as wine and wool, but was rarely out of debt. He went bankrupt in 1692 (paying his debts for nearly a decade thereafter), and by 1703, decided to leave the business industry altogether.
Acclaimed Writer
Having always been interested in politics, Defoe published his first literary piece
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