Happy Birthday, Robinson Crusoe —
Today is the 295th anniversary of the publication of Daniel Defoe's
Robinson Crusoe. But as Rebekah Higgitt (
writing for The Guardian) points out, the earliest editions of the book claimed that Robinson Crusoe himself, not Defoe, was its author. Also, there was nothing to indicate the book was fiction.
In other words, the book was a literary hoax. More specifically, it was "a satire on travel narratives and other texts attempting to present reliable knowledge."
