The Danielauthor Defoe Life. Daniel Defoe was born in London in 1660. He was a child when the Plague1 (1665) killed an enormous number of people and the Great Fire of London (1666) burnt2 a large part of the city in four days, destroying St Paul s Cathedral and other important buildings. His father was a merchant and a Dissenter3 and sent his son to a dissenting school where he received an excellent education. Daniel went into business, too, became a merchant4 of wine and tobacco and travelled on business for two or three years in Europe. When he came back, he married Mary Tulfley in 1684 and had eight children. In 1685 he took part in the Duke of Monmouth s unsuccessful5 Puritan rebellion against the Roman Catholic King James II. He escaped and in 1688 he was with the army of William of Orange, who became King of England. In 1689 The Toleration Act gave freedom of worship6 to all dissenters. His business was successful but he made bad investments7. In 1692 he went bankrupt8 and started new activities in journalism and literature. When the crown passed to Queen Anne, his situation changed. In 1702 he was imprisoned in Newgate9 for six months for publishing a satirical writing in defence of the Dissenters. In 1704 he started his famous political newspaper The Review and the following year became a secret agent and government spy10. It was only in 1719, at the age of sixty, that Defoe started writing the novels which gave him fame and success. In 1722 he published 1. Plague: a very infectious disease. 2. burnt (burn-burnt-burnt): when there is fire and something is on fire. 3. dissenter: person who does not agree with official opinion. 4. merchant: a person who buys and sells, imports and exports products in large quantities. 5. unsuccessful: not having success. 6. worship: the practice of showing 7. 8. 9. 10. 4 respect for God or a god, saying prayers or singing with others. investments: the acts of using money to buy things which will give you more money. bankrupt: you go bankrupt when you are not able to pay your debts. Newgate: a famous prison in London. spy: a person who tries to learn secret information about another country.