Editing Daniel Defoe (section)

=== 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=629–44|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 |title=Anonymous Defoe |date=2023 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/daniel-defoe-in-context/anonymous-defoe/BA155651248831E22ED374922A685413 |work=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 web|url=https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/holdingsInfo?searchId=6538&recCount=25&recPointer=2&bibId=2558791|title=LC Catalog - Item Information (Full Record)|website=catalog.loc.gov}}</ref> In the ''Cambridge History of English Literature'', the section on Defoe by author [[William Peterfield Trent|William P. Trent]] attributes 370 works to Defoe. J.R. Moore generated the largest list of Defoe's work, with approximately five hundred and fifty works that he attributed to Defoe.<ref name=":1"/>