Defoe, Daniel

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Defoe, Daniel (1660–1731) English journalist and novelist. He championed William III in his first notable poem, The True-born Englishman (1701). A politically controversial journalist, he was twice imprisoned, once for The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702). His reputation now rests on his fiction. His enduringly popular novels include Robinson Crusoe (1719), Moll Flanders (1722), Colonel Jack (1722), and Roxana (1724). A man of remarkably varied interests, Defoe is among the most prolific writers in the English language.

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