Editing Daniel Defoe (section)

{{short description|English writer, merchant and spy}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2017}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Daniel Defoe
| image            = Daniel Defoe Kneller Style.jpg
| image_size       = 
| caption          = Portrait of Daniel Defoe, [[National Maritime Museum]], [[London]]
| birth_name       = Daniel Foe
| birth_date       = {{c.}} 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}}; born '''Daniel Foe'''; {{c.}} 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 |url=https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1405/1323 |access-date=17 November 2022 |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|url-access=subscription }}</ref> was an English writer, merchant and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translations.<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> Defoe 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.

Defoe was a prolific and versatile writer, producing more than three hundred works<ref>Backscheider (2008/2004). "Even the most conservative lists of Defoe's works include 318 titles, and most Defoe scholars would credit him with at least 50 more."</ref>—books, pamphlets, and journals—on diverse topics, including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural. He was also a pioneer of [[business journalism]]<ref>Margarett A. James and Dorothy F. Tucker. "Daniel Defoe, Journalist." ''Business History Review'' 2.1 (1928): 2–6.</ref> and economic journalism.<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>