Daniel Defoe: Difference between revisions

{{short description|English writer, merchant and spy}}

| caption          = Portrait of Daniel Defoe, [[National Maritime Museum]], [[London]]

| birth_date      = {{c.}} 1660

'''Daniel Defoe''' ({{IPAc-en|d|ᵻ|ˈ|f|əʊ}} {{c.}} 1660 – 24 April 1731)<ref>{{cite journal |last=Duguid |first=Paul |title=Limits of self-organization: Peer production and "laws of quality" |journal=[[First Monday (journal)|First Monday]] |date=2 October 2006 |volume=11 |issue=10 |doi=10.5210/fm.v11i10.1405 |url=https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1405/1323 |access-date=17 November 2022 |language=en |issn=1396-0466 |quote=Most reliable sources hold that the date of Defoe's birth was uncertain and may have fallen in 1659 or 1661. The day of his death is also uncertain. |doi-access= free|url-access=subscription }}</ref> was an English writer, merchant and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translations.<ref name=":0">{{Cite ODNB |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7421 |title=Daniel Defoe (1660?–1731) |last=Backscheider |first=Paula R. |date=January 2008 |edition=online |orig-year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/7421}}</ref> He has been seen as one of the earliest proponents of the [[English novel]], and helped to popularise the form in Britain with others such as [[Aphra Behn]] and [[Samuel Richardson]].<ref>"Defoe", ''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'', ed. Margaret Drabble. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 265.</ref> Defoe wrote many political tracts, was often in trouble with the authorities, and spent a period in prison. Intellectuals and political leaders paid attention to his fresh ideas and sometimes consulted him.

Defoe was a prolific and versatile writer, producing more than three hundred works<ref>Backscheider (2008/2004). "Even the most conservative lists of Defoe's works include 318 titles, and most Defoe scholars would credit him with at least 50 more."</ref>—books, pamphlets, and journals—on diverse topics, including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural. He was also a pioneer of [[business journalism]]<ref>Margarett A. James and Dorothy F. Tucker. "Daniel Defoe, Journalist." ''Business History Review'' 2.1 (1928): 2–6.</ref> and economic journalism.<ref name="Letters to John Law">{{Cite book |last=Adams |first=Gavin John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=espxkAw-5bsC&pg=PR53 |title=Letters to John Law |publisher=Newton Page |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-934619-08-7 |pages=liii–lv |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102074401/http://books.google.com/books?id=espxkAw-5bsC&pg=PR53 |archive-date=2 January 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Daniel Foe was probably born in [[Fore Street, London|Fore Street]] in the parish of [[St Giles-without-Cripplegate|St Giles]] [[Cripplegate]], London.<ref name="EncylLon">{{Cite book |first1=Christopher |last1=Hibbert |authorlink1=Christopher Hibbert |first2=Ben |last2=Weinreb |first3=John |last3=Keay |first4=Julia |last4=Keay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xa0D0PqiwfEC&pg=PA304 |title=The London Encyclopaedia |publisher=Pan Macmillan |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-230-73878-2 |location=London |page=304}}</ref> Defoe later added the [[Nobiliary particle|aristocratic-sounding "De"]] to his name, and on occasion made the false claim of descent from a family named De Beau Faux.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stephanson |first=Raymond |authorlink=The Yard of Wit |editor=Raymond Stephanson, Darren N. Wagner |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4nAhCwAAQBAJ |title=The Secrets of Generation Reproduction in the Long Eighteenth Century |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4426-6693-1 |location=Toronto |page=105}}</ref> "De" is also a common prefix in Flemish surnames.<ref>{{cite web |last=Torselli |first=Stefano |title=Daniel Defoe |work=www.baroque.it |url=https://www.baroque.it/cultura-del-periodo-barocco/letteratura/scrittori-e-letterati/daniel-defoe.html |access-date=17 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803152602/http://www.baroque.it/cultura-del-periodo-barocco/letteratura/scrittori-e-letterati/daniel-defoe.html |archive-date=3 August 2017}}</ref> His birthdate and birthplace are uncertain, and sources offer dates from 1659 to 1662, with the summer or early autumn of 1660 considered the most likely.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bastian |first=F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yNquCwAAQBAJ&q=%22early+autumn+of+1660%22&pg=PA8 |title=Defoe's Early Years |publisher=Macmillan Press |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-333-27432-3 |location=London |page=8 |access-date=23 October 2017}}</ref> His father, James Foe, was a prosperous [[tallow]] [[Chandlery|chandler]] of probable [[County of Flanders|Flemish]] descent,<ref name="SCHAFF">{{Cite book |last=Schaff |first=Barbara |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NrH8DwAAQBAJ |title=Handbook of British Travel Writing |publisher=De Gruyter |year=2020 |isbn=978-3-11-049705-2 |location=Berlin}}</ref><ref name="BRITANNICA">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Mutter |first=Reginald P.C. |title=Daniel Defoe – English author |encyclopedia=Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Daniel-Defoe |access-date=17 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211017103647/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Daniel-Defoe |archive-date=17 October 2021}}</ref>{{efn|The surname Defoe is of Flemish origin, probably derived from [[Faux (surname)|Faux]]<ref name="WRIGHT">{{cite book |last=Wright |first=Thomas |authorlink=Thomas Wright (antiquarian) |date=1894 |title=The Life of Daniel Defoe Volume 1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YxhAAAAAYAAJ |location= |publisher=Cassell |page=2 |isbn=}}</ref> or one of its variants, such as [[Defauw (surname)|Defauw]].<ref name="KONINKLIJKE">{{Cite book |last1=Stevelinck |first1=Ernest |last2=De Roover |first2=Raymond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cxYjAQAAMAAJ |title=De comptabiliteit door de eeuwen heen tentoonstelling in de Koninklijke Bibliotheek Albert I |publisher=Royal Library of Belgium |year=1970 |location=Brussels |page=150}}</ref> Defoe lauded [[Elizabeth I|Elizabeth]] for encouraging the [[Flemish people#United Kingdom|Flemings]].<ref name="WRIGHT"/> It is thought that he was aware of his origins<ref name="WRIGHT"/> and it is possible that he understood some [[Flemish dialects|Flemish]]/[[Dutch language|Dutch]], since his library had Dutch titles.<ref>{{Cite book |last=van Ginneken |first=Jaap |authorlink=Jaap van Ginneken |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MU97AAAAQBAJ |title=Screening Difference How Hollywood's Blockbuster Films Imagine Race, Ethnicity, and Culture |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4616-4329-6 |location=Lanham, Maryland |page=75}}</ref>}} and a member of the [[Worshipful Company of Butchers]]. In Defoe's early childhood, he lived through several significant historical events: in 1665, seventy thousand were killed by the [[Great Plague of London]], and the next year, the [[Great Fire of London]] left only Defoe's and two other houses standing in his neighbourhood.<ref name="west">Richard West (1998) ''Daniel Defoe: The Life and Strange, Surprising Adventures''. New York: Carroll & Graf. {{ISBN|978-0-7867-0557-3}}.</ref> In 1667, when he was probably about seven, a Dutch fleet sailed up the [[River Medway|Medway]] via the [[River Thames]] and attacked the town of [[Chatham, Kent|Chatham]] in the [[raid on the Medway]]. His mother, Alice, had died by the time he was about ten.<ref name="autogenerated2006">{{Cite book |title=The Broadview Anthology of Literature: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century |publisher=Broadview Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-55111-611-2 |editor-last=Black |editor-first=Joseph Laurence |location=Toronto}}</ref><ref name="rich">{{cite book |doi=10.1002/9780470754665 |title=The Life of Daniel Defoe |year=2005 |last=Richetti |first=John |isbn=978-0-631-19529-0}}{{page needed|date=November 2022}}</ref>

Defoe entered the world of business as a general merchant, dealing at different times in hosiery, general woollen goods, and wine. His ambitions were great and he was able to buy a country estate and a ship (as well as [[civet]]s to make perfume), though he was rarely out of debt. On 1 January 1684, Defoe married Mary Tuffley at [[St Botolph's Aldgate]].<ref name="Novak 2001">{{Cite book |last=Novak |first=Maximillian |url=https://archive.org/details/danieldefoemaste00maxi |title=Daniel Defoe : master of fictions : his life and ideas |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-19-926154-3 |location=Oxford; New York |oclc=51963527 |url-access=registration}}</ref> She was the daughter of a London merchant, and brought with her a [[dowry]] of £3,700—a huge amount by the standards of the day. Given his debts and political difficulties, the marriage may have been troubled, but it lasted 47 years and produced eight children.<ref name="autogenerated2006"/>

Following his release from [[debtors' prison]], he probably travelled in Europe and Scotland,<ref name="Backscheider 1989">{{Cite book |last=Backscheider |first=Paula |title=Daniel Defoe : his life |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-8018-4512-3 |location=Baltimore |pages= |oclc=59911734}}</ref> and it may have been at this time that he traded wine to [[Cadiz]], [[Porto]] and [[Lisbon]]. By 1695, he was back in England, now formally using the name "Defoe" and serving as a "commissioner of the glass duty", responsible for collecting taxes on bottles. In 1696, he ran a tile and brick factory in what is now [[Tilbury]] in [[History of Essex|Essex]] and lived in the parish of [[Chadwell St Mary]] nearby.

[[File:Daniel Defoe in the Pillory.jpg|thumb|upright=1.54|''Daniel Defoe in the Pillory'' ([[Eyre Crowe (painter)|Eyre Crowe]], 1862)]]

Defoe's first notable publication was ''[[An Essay Upon Projects]]'', a series of proposals for social and economic improvement, published in 1697. From 1697 to 1698, he defended the right of King [[William III of England|William III]] to a [[standing army]] during disarmament, after the [[Treaty of Ryswick]] (1697) had ended the [[Nine Years' War]] (1688–1697). His most successful poem, ''[[The True-Born Englishman]]'' (1701), defended William against [[xenophobic]] attacks from his political enemies in England, and English anti-immigration sentiments more generally. In 1701, Defoe presented the ''Legion's Memorial'' to [[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer|Robert Harley]], then [[Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)|Speaker of the House of Commons]]—and his subsequent employer—while flanked by a guard of sixteen gentlemen of quality. It demanded the release of the Kentish petitioners, who had asked Parliament to support the king in an imminent war against France.

The death of [[William III of England|William III]] in 1702 once again created a political upheaval, as the king was replaced by [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]] who immediately began her offensive against [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|Nonconformists]].<ref name="autogenerated2006"/> Defoe was a natural target, and his pamphleteering and political activities resulted in his arrest and placement in a [[pillory]] on 31 July 1703, principally on account of his December 1702 pamphlet entitled ''[[The Shortest Way with the Dissenters|The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters; Or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church]]'', purporting to argue for their extermination.<ref>{{cite web |author=Defoe |first=Daniel |year=1702 |title=The shortest way with the Dissenters |url=http://www.bartleby.com/27/12.html |access-date=18 September 2010}}</ref> In it, he ruthlessly satirised both the [[high church]] [[Tories (British political party)|Tories]] and those [[Dissenter]]s who hypocritically practised so-called "[[occasional conformity]]", such as his [[Stoke Newington]] neighbour Sir [[Thomas Abney]]. It was published anonymously, but the true authorship was quickly discovered and Defoe was arrested.<ref name="autogenerated2006"/> He was charged with seditious libel and found guilty in a trial at the [[Old Bailey]] in front of the notoriously sadistic judge [[Salathiel Lovell]].<ref name="Letters to John Law"/> Lovell sentenced him to a punitive fine of 200 [[Mark (currency)|marks]] (£336 then, £{{Format price|{{Inflation|UK|336|1703}}}} in {{inflation/year|UK}}{{Inflation/fn|UK}}), to public humiliation in a [[pillory]], and to an indeterminate length of imprisonment which would end only upon the discharge of the punitive fine.<ref name="Letters to John Law"/> According to legend, the publication of his poem ''Hymn to the Pillory'' caused his audience at the pillory to throw flowers instead of the customary harmful and noxious objects and to drink to his health. The truth of this story is questioned by most scholars,{{why|date=January 2024}} although [[John Robert Moore]] later said that "no man in England but Defoe ever stood in the pillory and later rose to eminence among his fellow men".<ref name=rich/>

  |quote = "Wherever God erects a house of prayer<br/>the Devil always builds a chapel there;<br/>And 't will be found, upon examination,<br/>the latter has the largest congregation."

  |source = – Defoe's ''The True-Born Englishman'', 1701

In the same year, he set up his [[Periodical literature|periodical]] ''A Review of the Affairs of France'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Morgan |first=William Thomas |date=1940 |title=Defoe's Review as a Historical Source |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1874898 |journal=The Journal of Modern History |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=221–232 |issn=0022-2801}}</ref> which supported the [[Harley Ministry]], chronicling the events of the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] (1702–1714). The ''Review'' ran three times a week without interruption until 1713. Defoe was amazed that a man as gifted as Harley left vital state papers lying in the open, and warned that he was almost inviting an unscrupulous clerk to commit treason; his warnings were fully justified by the [[William Gregg (clerk and spy)|William Gregg]] affair.

{{more citations needed|section|date=July 2017}}<!--lots of paragraphs without citations-->

In despair during his imprisonment for the seditious libel case, Defoe wrote to [[William Paterson (banker)|William Paterson]], the London Scot and founder of the [[Bank of England]] and part instigator of the [[Darien scheme]], who was in the confidence of [[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer]], leading minister and spymaster in the [[Governance of England|English government]]. Harley accepted Defoe's services and released him in 1703. He immediately published ''The Review'', which appeared weekly, then three times a week, written mostly by himself. This was the main mouthpiece of the English Government promoting the [[Acts of Union 1707|Act of Union 1707]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://theses.ncl.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/10443/165/1/downie76.pdf |title=Robert Harley and the Press |last=Downie |first=J. A. |website=University of Newcastle eTheses |publisher=University of Newcastle |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190125183319/https://theses.ncl.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/10443/165/1/downie76.pdf |archive-date=25 January 2019 |access-date=24 January 2019}}</ref>

Defoe began his campaign in ''The Review'' and other pamphlets aimed at English opinion, claiming that it would end the threat from the north, gaining for the Treasury an "inexhaustible treasury of men", a valuable new market increasing the power of England. By September 1706, Harley ordered Defoe to [[Edinburgh]] as a secret agent, and to secure acquiescence by using "underhand methods to predispose Scots' opinion in favour of"<ref name="Somerset">{{cite book |last=Somerset |first=Anne |author-link=Lady Anne Somerset |date=2012 |title=Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion |location=London |publisher=Willaim Collins |page=313 |isbn=978-0-00-720376-5}}</ref> the [[Treaty of Union]]. He was conscious of the risk to himself. Thanks to books such as ''The Letters of Daniel Defoe'' (edited by G. H. Healey, Oxford 1955), far more is known about his activities than is usual with such agents.

His first reports included vivid descriptions of violent demonstrations against the Union. "A Scots rabble is the worst of its kind", he reported. Defoe reportedly "became fearful of being [[lynched]] after a threatening crowd surged up the High Street shouting 'No Union! No English dogs!'"<ref name="Somerset"/> Years later [[Sir John Clerk, 2nd Baronet|John Clerk of Penicuik]], a leading Unionist, wrote in his memoirs that it was not known at the time that Defoe had been sent by Godolphin: {{blockquote|to give a faithful account to him from time to time how everything past here. He was therefor<!--sic--> a spy among us, but not known to be such, otherways the [[wikt:mob|Mob]] of [[Edinburgh|Edin.]]<!--sic--> had pull him to pieces.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clerk |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/memoirslifesirj01clergoog |title=Memoirs of the life of Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, baronet, baron of the Exchequer, extracted by himself from his own journals, 1676–1755 |date=1892 |publisher=Scottish Historical Society |editor-last=Gray |editor-first=John Miller |location=Edinburgh |pages=63–64}} In a side-note at this point Clerk recommends Defoe's ''History of the Union of Great Britain'' : "This History of the Union deserves to be read. It was published in folio. There is not one fact in it which I can challenge"</ref>|sign=|source=}}

{{blockquote|Having had the honour to be always sent for the committee to whom these amendments were referrèd,<br/>I have had the good fortune to break their measures in two particulars via the bounty on Corn and<br/>proportion of the Excise.}}

In 1709, Defoe authored a lengthy book entitled ''The History of the Union of Great Britain'', an Edinburgh publication printed by the Heirs of Anderson.<ref>[https://truescans.com/BeginnersFolder/Defoe.htm ''The History Of The Union Of Great Britain'', 1709; Edinburgh, Heirs of Anderson] at TrueScans.</ref> Defoe is cited twice in the book as its author,<ref>[http://truescans.com/BeginnersFolder/Images/Defoe_1709/DSCN9162.JPG First Defoe book author reference – cited as DANIEL DEFOE] at truescans.com.</ref><ref>[http://truescans.com/BeginnersFolder/Images/Defoe_1709/DSCN9166.JPG Second Defoe book author reference – cited as D. DE FOE] at truescans.com.</ref> and gives details of the events leading up to the ''[[Acts of Union 1707]]'', dating as far back as 6 December 1604, when King [[James VI and I|James I]] was presented with a proposal for unification.<ref>[http://truescans.com/BeginnersFolder/Images/Defoe_1709/DSCN9167A.JPG Book reference to 6th December of 1604] at truescans.com.</ref> This so-called "first draft" for unification took place just a little over 100 years before the signing of the 1707 accord.

Published in 1726, ''The Complete English Tradesman'' is an example of Defoe's political works. In the work, Defoe discussed the role of the [[Merchant|tradesman]] in England in comparison to tradesmen internationally, arguing that the British system of trade is far superior.<ref name=defoe1/> Defoe also implied that trade was the backbone of the [[Economy of the United Kingdom|British economy]]: "an estate's a pond, but a trade's a spring."<ref name="defoe1">{{cite book |last=Defoe |first=Daniel |title=The complete English tradesman, in familiar letters .. |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nnc1.0112322717 |publisher=Printed for George Ewing |publication-place=Dublin |year=1726 |oclc=36869195 |page=[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nnc1.0112322717?urlappend=%3Bseq=399%3Bownerid=27021597768393345-419 375]}}</ref> In the work, Defoe praised the practicality of trade not only within the economy but the social stratification as well. Defoe argued that most of the British [[gentry]] was at one time or another inextricably linked with the institution of trade, either through personal experience, marriage or genealogy.<ref name=defoe1/> Oftentimes younger members of noble families entered into trade, and marriages to a tradesman's daughter by a [[nobleman]] was also common. Overall, Defoe demonstrated a high respect for tradesmen, being one himself.

The novel has been assumed to be based in part on the story of the Scottish castaway [[Alexander Selkirk]], who spent four years stranded in the [[Juan Fernández Islands]],<ref name="autogenerated2006"/> but his experience is inconsistent with the details of the narrative.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}} The island Selkirk lived on, Más a Tierra (Closer to Land) was renamed [[Robinson Crusoe Island]] in 1966. It has also been suggested that Defoe was also inspired by a translation of a book by the [[Al-Andalus|Andalusian-Arab]] Muslim polymath [[Ibn Tufail]], who was known as "Abubacer" in Europe. The Latin edition was entitled ''[[Hayy ibn Yaqdhan|Philosophus Autodidactus]]'';<ref>Nawal Muhammad Hassan (1980), ''Hayy bin Yaqzan and Robinson Crusoe: A study of an early Arabic impact on English literature'', Al-Rashid House for Publication.</ref><ref>Cyril Glassé (2001), ''The New Encyclopedia of Islam'', Rowman Altamira, p. 202, {{ISBN|0-7591-0190-6}}.</ref><ref name="Amber">{{Cite journal |last=Haque |first=Amber |year=2004 |title=Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists |journal=Journal of Religion and Health |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=357–377 [369] |doi=10.1007/s10943-004-4302-z |jstor=27512819 |s2cid=38740431}}</ref><ref name="Wainwright">Martin Wainwright (22 March 2003) [http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,918454,00.html Desert island scripts], ''[[The Guardian]]''.</ref> [[Simon Ockley]] published an English translation in 1708, entitled ''The improvement of human reason, exhibited in the life of Hai ebn Yokdhan''.

''[[Colonel Jack]]'' (1722) follows an orphaned boy from a life of poverty and crime to prosperity in the colonies, military and marital imbroglios, and religious conversion, driven by a problematic notion of becoming a "gentleman."

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"/>

* ''The Four Years Voyages of Capt. George Roberts'' (1726)

* ''[[An Essay Upon Projects]]'' (1697) – subsections of the text include: "The History of Projects," "Of Projectors," "Of Banks," "Of the Highways," "Of Assurances," "Of Friendly Societies," "The Proposal is for a Pension Office," "Of Wagering," "Of Fools," "A Charity-Lottery," "Of Bankrupts," "Of Academies" (including a section proposing an academy for women), "Of a Court Merchant," and "Of Seamen."

* ''A Narrative of All The Robberies, Escapes, &c. of John Sheppard'' (1724) – written by or taken down from Sheppard himself in the condemned cell before he was hanged for theft, apparently by way of conclusion to Defoe's work. According to the Introduction to Volume 16 of the works of Defoe published by J.M. Dent in 1895, Sheppard handed the manuscript to the publisher Applebee from the prisoners' cart as he was taken away to be hanged. Defoe's edition of the text includes corrections of factual details and an explanation of how Sheppard's escapes from prison were achieved.

* ''The History of the Kentish Petition'' (1701)

* Curtis, Laura Ann, ed. ''The Versatile Defoe: An Anthology of Uncollected Writings by Daniel Defoe'' (Rowman and Littlefield, 1979).

* Defoe, Daniel. ''The Best of Defoe's Review: An Anthology'' (Columbia University Press, 1951).

* W. R. Owens, and Philip Nicholas Furbank, eds. ''The True-Born Englishman and Other Writings'' (Penguin Books, 1997).

* W. R. Owens, and Philip Nicholas Furbank, eds. ''Political and Economic Writings of Daniel Defoe'' (Pickering & Chatto, 2000).

* W. R. Owens, and Philip Nicholas Furbank, eds. ''Writings on Travel, Discovery, and History'' (Pickering & Chatto, 2001–2002).

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[[Category:People from the City of London]]