Daniel Defoe was born towards the summer of 1660 s the son of Alice and James Foe. His father was a City tradesman and member of the Butchers’ Company. James Foe’s stubborn Puritanism – the Foes were Dissenteres, Protestants who did not belong to the Anglican Church – come occasionally comes through Defoe’s writing. In the early 1680s Defoe was a commission merchant in Cornhill but went bankrupt in 1691. In 1684 he married Mary Tuffley; they had two sons and five daughters. Defoe was involved in Monmouth rebellion in 1685 against King James II. While hiding as a fugitive in a churchyard after the rebellion was put down, he noticed the name Robinson Crusoe carved on a stone, and later gave it to his famous hero. For his account, Defoe also used printed records. Phenomenally industrious, Defoe also produced in his last years works involving the supernatural, The Political History of the Devil (1726) and an essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions (1927). He died on 26 April, 1731, at his lodgings in ropermaker’s alley, Moorfields. One of the most complete bibliographies of Defoe’s works lists almost 400 titles, ranging from pamphlets to books on the occult and novels.
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