Daniel Defoe

English novelist, journalist, and pamphleteer — one of the earliest practitioners of the English novel. Robinson Crusoe (1719) established the template for the castaway narrative and the colonial adventure story. Almost certainly the author of 'Captain Charles Johnson's' A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates (1724), the foundational primary source for the Golden Age of Piracy. Defoe was also a prolific political journalist, spy, and social commentator; he witnessed the Great Storm of 1703 and the South Sea Bubble (1720).

• Lived: 1660 CE – 1731 CE
• Nationality: English
• Roles: writer, journalist, pamphleteer