Looking over the full life of Daniel Defoe, there seems to be little that the Englishman did not attempt or experience. He was a trainee for the ministry, a poet, a businessman, a shopkeeper, a historian, an investor, a soldier, and a writer of fictional works as well as political and social tracts. Many of his business dealings put him on the brink of fi- nancial failure, and a number of his writings landed him in jail. His political writings, though, were ultimately so well-regarded and widely quoted that, according to Paula R. Backscheider in The Dictionary of Literary Biography, "echoes of them exist in, for instance, the United States Constitution." In spite of this, Defoe is currently best known for his works of fiction, including Moll Flanders.

Defoe is believed to have been born around 1660 to James and Alice Foe in London, England. While the...