The strange and colorful life of Daniel Defoe has long baffled historians. Constantly running from his creditors, always struggling to feed his wife and six children, he became a consummate pamphleteer as well as the first great novelist in the English language, with such classics as Robinson Crusoe (the world bestseller of all time), Moll Flanders, and A Journal of the Plague Year.Drawing Defoe from the shadows where he preferred to live his life, West presents the enigmatic writer in all his gulses: the rebel against James II, the spy for Queen Anne, the bankrupt prison convict, and the first great English journalist, who created the lead story, the obituary, and the gossip and advice columns.
