Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) was an English writer, journalist, and spy, who gained enduring fame for his novel 'Robinson Crusoe' (1719). Defoe is noted for being one of the progenitors of the English novel, and he wrote more than five hundred books, pamphlets, articles, and poems. His literary career began with the publication of 'An Essay upon Projects' (1697), which proposed ideas for social and ec...