Defoe, Daniel. A much admired English novelist. Born in 1661, the son of a butcher. In 1688 Defoe kept a hosier's shop in Cornhill, but proving unsuccessful, he was obliged to depend upon his literary powers for a livelihood. He obtained, in 1695, the appointment of accountant to the commissioners of glass duty, which office he held until that duty was repealed in 1701. He was an active writer, but his "Robinson Crusoe," the work for which he was most celebrated, did not appear until 1719. Among Defoe's productions may be mentioned "A Journal of the Plague in 1665," by a supposed witness of it. He died in 1731.

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