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The Thai solar calendar, Suriyakhati (Thai: สุริยคติ) was adopted by King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) in AD 1888 as the Siamese version of the Gregorian calendar. It is the legal calendar in Thailand, though Thai lunar calendar dates continue in use. Years are now counted in the Buddhist Era (BE: พ.ศ. พุทธศักราช póota sàk-gà-râat) that is 543 years greater than the Christian Era ( ค.ศ. คริสต์ศักราช krít sàk-gà-râat). As a convenience, calendars typically include the year AD in both Arabic and Chinese numerals.

August ๒๕๔๗ Thai numerals = 2547 BE, AD 2004 Chinese 二〇〇四年

August 2547 BE/AD 2004

Calendar[link]

• Red numerals mark Sundays and public holidays in Thailand.
• Buddha images mark Buddhist Sabbaths, Wan Phra (วันพระ.)
• Red tablets with white Chinese characters mark the New and Full Moons of the Chinese calendar, which typically differ by one day from those of the Thai.
• Scrawled blue figures mark dates of national lottery drawings and it's made for predict number for last 3 digit and 2 digit prize (for example, 078 on the 15th, 538 on the 19th and 2576 on 31 August 2004.)
• Thai lunar calendar dates appear below the solar calendar date.

Birthdays[link]

Mundane astrology figures prominently in Thai culture, so modern Thai birth certificates include lunar calendar dates, and the appropriate Chinese calendar zodiacal animal year-name for both Thai Hora (โหราศาสตร์ โหราสาต ho-ra-sat) and Chinese astrology. Thai birth certificates record the date, month, year and time of birth, followed by the day of the week, lunar date, and the applicable zodiac animal name. Thai traditionally reckon age by the 12-year animal-cycle names, with the twelfth and sixtieth anniversaries being of special significance; but the official calendar determines age at law.

For instance, 12 August 2004 was observed without regard to the lunar date as Queen Sirikit's birthday, a public holiday also observed as Thai Mothers' Day. Her zodiacal animal is the monkey and her traditionally significant sixtieth anniversary year was 1992. Born on a Friday, her auspicious birthday colour is blue. Thai auspicious colours of the day are given in the table of weekdays, followed below it by a link to the Buddha images for each day of the week.

Years[link]

Rattanakosin Era[link]

The Rattanakosin Era (RE) (รัตนโกสินทรศก Rattanakosin Sok) Year 1 began 6 April 1782, with the accession of Rama I, the foundation of the Chakri Dynasty and the founding of Bangkok (Rattanakosin) as capital. King Chulalongkorn decreed this as the epoch (reference date) for the counting of years in 106 RE, AD 1888.

Buddhist Era[link]

In Thailand the Buddhist Era is reckoned to have an epochal year 0 from 11 March 545 BC, believed to be the date of the death of Gautama Buddha. King Vajiravudh (Rama VI) changed year counting to this Buddhist Era (BE) and moved the start of the year back to 1 April in 2455 BE, AD 1912.

New year[link]

On 6 September 1940, Prime Minister Phibunsongkhram decreed^[1] 1 January 1941 as the start of the year 2484 BE, so year 2483 BE had only nine months. To convert dates from 1 January to 31 March prior to that year, the number to add or subtract is 542; otherwise, it is 543. Example:

Today, both the Common Era New Year's Day (1 January) and the traditional Thai New Year (สงกรานต์ Songkran) celebrations (13–15 April) are public holidays in Thailand.

In the traditional Thai calendar, the change to the next Chinese zodiacal animal occurs at Songkhran (13 April).^[2] For Thai Chinese communities in Thailand, however, the Chinese calendar determines the day that a Chinese New Year begins, and assumes the name of the next animal in the twelve-year animal cycle.

Weekends and holidays[link]

Saturdays and Sundays (Thai: เสาร์-อาทิตย์ sow-athit) are observed as legal non-workdays (วันหยุดราชการ wan yut rachagan) and are generally shown on calendars in red, as are public holidays. Since 1996 and subject to declaration by the Cabinet of Thailand, public holidays that fall on weekends are followed by Substitution days (วันชดเชย wan chot choie) generally shown in a lighter shade of red, as shown above for Monday, 2 August 2004. Buddhist feasts that are public holidays are calculated according to the Thai lunar calendar, so their dates change every year with respect to the solar calendar. Chinese New Year and other feasts observed by Thai Chinese vary with respect to both, as these are calculated according to the Chinese calendar.

Months[link]

Names of the months derive from Hindu astrology names for the signs of the zodiac. Thirty-day-month names end in -ayon (-ายน), from Sanskrit root āyana : the arrival of; 31-day-month names end in -akhom (-าคม), from Sanskrit āgama (cognate to English "come") that also means the arrival of.

February's name ends in -phan (-พันธ์), from Sanskrit bandha : "fettered" or "bound". The day added to February in a solar leap year is Athikasuratin (อธิกสุรทิน, respelled to aid pronunciation (อะทิกะสุระทิน) from Sanskrit adhika : additional; sura : move).^[3]

Weeks[link]

A week (สัปดาห์ sàb-da or สัปดาหะ sàb-da-hà from Sanskrit "seven") is a 7-day period beginning on Sunday and ending Saturday.^[4]

Days of the week are named after the Sun and Moon, and Sanskrit names of the five classical planets.

Note: Colours are those considered auspicious for the given days of the week, that of Wednesday day being green and of Wednesday night, light green. Of Buddha images representing episodes (ปาง) from his life, there is one that represents a week and others for each day of the week: Monday has three options that are similar and Wednesday, entirely different ones for day and night.^[5]

Thai representations of the planets in deity form are below:

• 

  Phra Athit

• 

  Phra Chan

• 

  Phra Angkhan

• 

  Phra Phut

• 

  Phra Rahu

• 

  Phra Phareuehat

• 

  Phra Suk

• 

  Phra Sao

Notes[link]

See also[link]

Thailand portal

• Buddhist calendar
• Public holidays in Thailand
• Thai 6-hour clock
• Thai lunar calendar
• Time in Thailand

References[link]

• Eade, John Christopher. 1995. The Calendrical Systems of Mainland South-East Asia. Handbuch der Orientalistik: Dritte Abteilung, Südostasien 9. Leiden and New York: E. J. Brill. ISBN 90-04-10437-2
• na Nakorn, Bleung (comp.). [1971]. นายเปลื้อง ณ นคร ผู้รวบรวม ปทานุกรมนักเรียน ไทยวัฒนาพานิช กทม. Student's Handbook. Bangkok: Thai Wattana Panit, 2514.
• Sethaputra, So. 1999. New Model English - Thai Dictionary. [Krung Thep Maha Nakhon?: Thai Watthana Phanit?]. ISBN 974-08-3253-9
• Thai calendar for August 2004.
• Web dictionary Thai-English English-Thai

External links[link]

• Thai Time by Anthony Diller
• Thai Buddha Images for the Days of the Week
• Thai Lunar/Solar Calendar (BE.2300-2584) (Thai Language)

A solar calendar is a calendar whose dates indicate the position of the earth on its revolution around the sun (or equivalently the apparent position of the sun moving on the celestial sphere).

Tropical solar calendars[link]

If the position of the earth in its orbit around the sun is reckoned with respect to the equinox, the point at which the orbit crosses the celestial equator, then its dates accurately indicate the seasons, that is, they are synchronized with the declination of the sun. Such a calendar is called a tropical solar calendar.

The duration of the mean calendar year of such a calendar approximates some form of the tropical year, usually either the mean tropical year or the vernal equinox year.

The following are tropical solar calendars:

• Gregorian calendar
• Julian calendar
• Bahá'í calendar
• Coptic calendar
• Iranian calendar (Jalāli Calendar)

Every one of these calendars has a year of 365 days, which is occasionally extended by adding an extra day to form a leap year, a method called "intercalation", the inserted day being "intercalary".

The Zoroastrian calendar is a religious calendar used by adherents of the Zoroastrian faith, and is an approximation of the tropical solar calendar.

Sidereal solar calendars[link]

If the position of the earth (see above) is reckoned with respect to the fixed stars, then the dates indicate the zodiacal constellation near which the sun can be found. Such a calendar is called a sidereal solar calendar.

The mean calendar year of such a calendar approximates the sidereal year.

Indian calendars like the Hindu calendar, Bengali calendar, Malayalam calendar and Tamil calendar are sidereal solar calendars. The Thai solar calendar, based on the Hindu solar calendar is also a sidereal calendar. They are calculated on the basis of the apparent motion of the sun through the twelve zodiacs rather than the true tropical movement of the earth.

Non-solar calendars[link]

Calendars that are not solar calendars include the Islamic calendar, which is a purely lunar calendar and calendars synchronized to the synodic period of Venus or to the heliacal risings of stars.

Lunisolar calendars[link]

Lunisolar calendars may be regarded as solar calendars, although their dates additionally indicate the moon phase. Because a typical lunisolar calendar has a year made up of a whole number of lunar months, it can't indicate the position of Earth on its revolution around the sun as well as a pure solar calendar can.

See also[link]

• Analemma calendar

External links[link]

• Correspondence between Hebrew and Islamic calendars, months and holidays (pdf)

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Steve Reeves
Steve Reeves with bodybuilder Melissa Palmer
Born	(1926-01-21)January 21, 1926[1] Glasgow, Montana, USA
Died	May 1, 2000(2000-05-01) (aged 74) Escondido, California, USA[1]
Occupation	Athlete, Actor, Philanthropist. Bodybuilder Legend.
Spouse	Sandra Smith (1955–1956) Aline Czartjarwicz[1] (1963–1989) (her death)

Stephen L. Reeves (January 21, 1926 – May 1, 2000^[1]) was an American bodybuilder and actor. At the peak of his career, he was the highest-paid actor in Europe.^[2]

Childhood[link]

Born in Glasgow, Montana,^[2] Steve Reeves moved to California at age 10 with his mother Goldie Reeves, after his father Lester Dell Reeves died in a farming accident.^[1] Reeves developed an interest in bodybuilding in high school and trained at Ed Yarick's gym in Oakland. By the time he was 17, he had developed a Herculean physique, long before the general interest in bodybuilding. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Army during World War II, and served in the Pacific.

Acting[link]

After his military service, Reeves invested in an acting career. In 1954 he had a small role in his first major motion picture, the musical Athena^[1] playing the boyfriend of Jane Powell's character. The same year Reeves had a small role as a cop in the Ed Wood film Jail Bait. These two films are the only ones Reeves made where his own voice was used — for the remainder of his career, Reeves acted in Italian-made films where all dialogue and sound effects were added in post-production.

On December 17, 1954, Reeves guest starred in the ABC sitcom with a variety show theme, The Ray Bolger Show. Ray Bolger portrayed Raymond Wallace, a song-and-dance man repeatedly barely on time for his performances. Reeves played a well-built office employee whom Wallace sees in the company of Wallace's girlfriend, Susan, played by Marjie Millar. Others on the series were Richard Erdman, Allyn Joslyn, Betty Lynn, Sylvia Lewis, Gloria Winters, and Verna Felton.^[3]

In 1957, Reeves went to Italy and played the lead character in Pietro Francisci's Hercules, a relatively low-budget epic based loosely on the tales of Jason and the Argonauts, though inserting Hercules into the lead role.^[1] The film was a major box-office success, grossing $5m in the United States alone in 1959.^[4] Its commercial success led to a 1959 sequel Hercules Unchained.

From 1959 through 1964, Reeves went on to appear in a string of sword and sandal movies shot on relatively small budgets,^[1] and although he is best known for his portrayal of Hercules, he played the character only twice: in the 1958 film and its 1959 sequel Hercules Unchained (released in the US in 1960). He played a number of other characters on screen, including Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Glaucus of Pompeii; Goliath, the bane of the barbarians (actually called Emiliano in the Italian version); Tatar hero Hadji Murad; Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome (opposite Gordon Scott as his twin brother Remus); Pheidippides, the famous war-time messenger of the Battle of Marathon; pirate and self-proclaimed governor of Jamaica, Captain Henry Morgan; and Karim, the fabled Thief of Baghdad. Twice he played Aeneas of Troy and twice he played Emilio Salgari's Malaysian hero, Sandokan.

After the box office success of Hercules, Reeves turned down the role that finally went to Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars (1964) because he could not believe that "Italians could make a western".^[2] He also claimed to have turned down the James Bond role in Dr. No (1962).^[2] Mr. Reeves mentions in an interview that he was offered only $100,000 to play Secret Agent 007, whereas he was earning $250,000 per film in Italy, and as such was tied with Sophia Loren as the highest paid actor in Europe at the time; thus he turned down the role of James Bond to continue making pepla in Italy.

During the filming of The Last Days of Pompeii, Reeves dislocated his shoulder when his chariot slammed into a tree.^[1][2] Swimming in a subsequent underwater escape scene, he re-injured his shoulder. The injury would be aggravated by his stunt work in each successive film, ultimately leading to his retirement from filmmaking and weightlifting.^[1]

In 1968 Reeves appeared in his final film, a spaghetti western that imitated the Sergio Leone epics, which he also co-wrote, titled I Live For Your Death! (later released as A Long Ride From Hell).^[1] His last screen appearance was in 2000 when he appeared as himself in the made-for-television A&E Biography: Arnold Schwarzenegger - Flex Appeal.

In July 1997, Steve was interviewed by freelance writer, Rod Labbe. Entitled "Demi-god on Horseback," it ran as the cover story in "Films of the Golden Age" magazine #65, dated Summer 2011.

Death[link]

Later in his life, Reeves promoted drug-free bodybuilding and bred horses.^[1][2] The last two decades of his life were spent in Valley Center, California, near Escondido. He bought a ranch with his savings and lived there with his second wife Aline until her death in 1989.^[1][2] On May 1, 2000, Reeves died from complications of lymphoma.^[1][2]

Filmography in chronological order[link]

Films are listed in order of production, by their American theatrical release titles; translation of the original Italian titles are in parentheses following the date....

• Athena (1954) Hollywood film directed by Richard Thorpe
• Jail Bait (1954) Hollywood film directed by Ed Wood
• Hercules (1958) (The Labors of Hercules) released in USA 1959
• Hercules Unchained (1959) (Hercules and the Queen of Lydia) released in USA 1960
• Goliath and the Barbarians (1959) (Terror of the Barbarians)
• The Giant of Marathon (1959) (The Battle of Marathon)
• The Last Days of Pompeii (1959) (The Last Days of Pompeii)
• The White Warrior (1959) (Hadji Murad, The White Devil) directed by Riccardo Freda
• Morgan, the Pirate (1960) (Morgan, the Pirate)
• The Thief of Baghdad (1960) (The Thief of Baghdad)
• The Trojan Horse (1961) (The Trojan War)
• Duel of the Titans (1961) (Romulus And Remus)
• The Slave (1962) (Son of Spartacus)
• The Avenger (1962) (The Legend Of Aeneas) a.k.a. The Last Glory of Troy (sequel to "The Trojan Horse" (1961))
• Sandokan the Great (1964) (Sandokan, the Tiger of Mompracem) directed by Umberto Lenzi
• Sandokan, the Pirate of Malaysia (1964) (The Pirates of Malaysia) a.k.a. Pirates of the Seven Seas, directed by Umberto Lenzi
• A Long Ride from Hell (1967) (I Live for Your Death) directed by Camillo Brazzoni, produced and co-written by Steve Reeves

Reference in other Films[link]

• The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Lyrics to "Sweet Transvestite" performed by Tim Curry.

See also[link]

• List of male professional bodybuilders

References[link]

• Chapman, David. "On The Cover: Steve Reeves", Hardgainer, November 1992.

External links[link]

• An Interview with Steve Reeves by Roy Frumkes, from The Perfect Vision Magazine, Volume 6, Issue #22, July 1994
• How Steve Reeves Trained by John Grimek, Muscular Development November 1964, account of how Reeves trained to prepare for the 1950 Mr. Universe competition at the York Barbell Club gym
• http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/hercules.html
• Steve Reeves at the Internet Movie Database
• Steve Reeves at the Internet Broadway Database
• Steve Reeves at Find a Grave
• Feature Films: Hercules
• Feature Films: Hercules Unchained
• Steve Reeves Gallery

Sylva Koscina (born August 22, 1933, Zagreb, Kingdom of Yugoslavia — died December 26, 1994, Rome, Italy) was an Italian actress.

Biography[link]

Born in Zagreb as Silva Košćina of a parents from Split and Trogir ("Košćina" in čakavian Croatian means "a great bone"; Košćina was a family name of the owner of the first greater shipyard in Split, established 1831^[1]). Her publicity agents invented that she was born Sylva Koskinon of a Greek father and a Polish mother. She may be best-remembered for her role as Iole, the bride of Hercules (Steve Reeves) in Hercules (1958) and Hercules Unchained (1960). She also played Paul Newman's romantic interest in The Secret War of Harry Frigg (1968).

During the Second World War when she was a teenager, she moved to Italy to live with her sister, who had married an Italian citizen.^[2]

Koscina had an extensive film career there. She also starred in the 1967 comedy caper Three Bites of the Apple with David McCallum, and Deadlier Than the Male (1967), in which she and Elke Sommer portrayed sophisticated professional killers dueling with Bulldog Drummond. She also played Danica in the Yugoslavian movie The Battle of Neretva, in 1969. She played a German doctor, Bianca, in Hornets' Nest with Rock Hudson.

Koscina had studied physics at the University of Naples, was Miss Di Tappa at the Tour of Italy bicycle race in 1954, as well as being a fashion model. She made a fleeting appearance in the part of an aspiring actress in Siamo uomini o caporali? [Are we men or corporals?] (1955) before making a flying catch at her great opportunity: she portrayed Giulia, daughter of the train engineer Andrea, in Pietro Germi's Il ferroviere [The Railroad Man] (1956). Koscina immediately confirmed her talent in Guendalina (1957), where she had no difficulty playing the part of a young mother.

A lead player in popular comedies, such as Nonna Sabella [Grandmother Sabella] (1957), Ladro lui, ladra lei [He a thief, she a thief] (1958), and Poveri millionari [Poor millionaires] (1958), Koscina alternated cleverly between roles as vamp and ingenue. She represented women in search of social upward mobility, the image of an Italy that had left its worst problems behind.

Koscina was suited to sophisticated comedies like Mogli pericolose [Dangerous wives] (1958), where she made a direct sentimental challenge to poor Giorgia Moll. But she also seemed at ease draped in a peplum: she made a marvelous fiancee for Hercules in Le fatiche di Ercole [Hercules] (1958), a prototype of this kind of film. A true-life example of her popularity in Italy occurred when, in order to win her over, a police officer let her go without issuing a traffic ticket. Sylva was later a guest on a television program, where thanked him on the air, thus getting him into lots of trouble with the police department. The incident and its aftermath inspired the movie Il vigile [The policeman] (1960), where she played herself.

In the first half of the sixties, Koscina married her lover, Raimondo Castelli, a small producer connected with Minerva Films. She managed to keep well afloat with roles in Damiano Damiani's Il sicario [The hired killer] (1961). In La lepre e la tartaruga [The Tortoise and the Hare], an episode in Le quattro verita [The Three Fables of Love] (1963), the director Blasetti constructed a duel between Koscina and Monica Vitti. In 1965, Koscina appeared in Giulietta degli spiriti. She was also a television personality, as she was often the special guest on variety shows.

From the early 1960s, she invested most of her considerable salaries as a star in a luxurious villa, in the well-to-do district of Marino, Rome, complete with 16th-century furniture and artistic paintings. That lasted until her spending overcame her dwindling income, and she had to face a tax evasion inquest, when she was forced to sell her house in 1976. Living with Raimondo Castelli since 1960, she did not marry due to then Italian law and because his wife Marinella refused him an annulment. Castelli and Koscina married in Mexico in 1967, but that marriage was not recognized in Italy.

After passing thirty, she partnered with actors such as Kirk Douglas in A Lovely Way to Die (1968) and Paul Newman in The Secret War of Harry Frigg (1967), but without any luck. Her fame being a bit tarnished, it was given a boost in the second half of the sixties when she was photographed bare-breasted in the Italian edition of Playboy magazine. Mauro Bolognini's L'assolute naturale (1969) was released complete with a "chaste" full nude shot.^{[citation needed]}

Personal quotes[link]

• On her infamous love scene – "Of course, if it had not been for the director, I wouldn't have done this film."

Death[link]

Sylva Koscina died in Rome in 1994, aged 61, from breast cancer.^[3]

Selected filmography[link]

• Swordsman of Siena (1962)
• Hot Enough for June (1964)
• The Dictator's Guns (1965)
• Deadlier Than the Male (1967)
• Kampf um Rom I (1968)
• The Secret War of Harry Frigg (1968)
• I See Naked (1969)
• Kampf um Rom II (1969)
• Hornet's nest as Dr. Bianca with Rock Hudson(1970)
• Sunday Lovers (1980)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sylva Koscina at the Internet Movie Database

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2010)

Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe
Born	c.1659–1661
Died	24 April 1731
Occupation	Writer, Journalist, Merchant
Genres	Adventure
Influenced Johann Wyss, Jonathan Swift, George Orwell, Virginia Woolf

Daniel Defoe ( /ˌdænjəl dɨˈfoʊ/; ca. 1659–1661 to 24 April 1731),^[1] born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson, is among the founders of the English novel. A prolific and versatile writer, he wrote more than 500 books, pamphlets and journals on various topics (including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural). He was also a pioneer of economic journalism.^[2]

Early life[link]

Daniel Foe (his original name) was probably born in the parish of St. Giles Cripplegate London. Defoe later added the aristocratic-sounding "De" to his name and on occasion claimed descent from the family of De Beau Faux. The date and the place of his birth are uncertain, with sources often giving dates of 1659 to 1661. His father James Foe, though a member of the Butchers' Company, was a tallow chandler. In Defoe's early life he experienced first-hand some of the most unusual occurrences in English history: in 1665, 70,000 were killed by the Great Plague of London. The Great Fire of London (1666) hit Defoe's neighbourhood hard, leaving only his and two other homes standing.^[3] In 1667, when Defoe was probably about seven years old, a Dutch fleet sailed up the Medway via the River Thames and attacked Chatham. By the time he was about 10, Defoe's mother Annie had died.^[4][5]

His parents were Presbyterian dissenters; he was educated in a dissenting academy at Newington Green run by Charles Morton and is believed to have attended the church there.^[6] During this time period, England was not tolerant in religion. Controversy of religion was a political issue. Roman Catholics were feared and hated. Dissenters refused to conform to the services of the Church of England; they were despised and oppressed.

James Foe wanted his son to enter in ministry, but Daniel Defoe preferred other things. When he was about 18, he left school. After some years of preparations, he went into the hosiery business.

Business career[link]

Although Defoe was a Christian, he decided not to become a dissenting minister and entered the world of business as a general merchant, dealing at different times in hosiery, general woollen goods and wine. Though his ambitions were great and he bought both a country estate and a ship (as well as civet cats to make perfume), he was rarely out of debt. In 1684, Defoe married Mary Tuffley, the daughter of a London merchant, and received a dowry of £3,700. With his debts and political trouble, their marriage was most likely a difficult one. It lasted 50 years, however, and together they had eight children, six of whom survived.^[4]

In 1685, he joined the ill-fated Monmouth Rebellion but gained a pardon by which he escaped the Bloody Assizes of Judge George Jeffreys. William III was crowned in 1688, and Foe immediately became one of his close allies and a secret agent.^[4] Some of the new king's policies, however, led to conflict with France, thus damaging prosperous trade relationships for Defoe, who had established himself as a merchant.^[4] In 1692, Defoe was arrested for payments of £700 (and his civets were seized), though his total debts may have amounted to £17,000 His laments were loud and he always defended unfortunate debtors but there is evidence that his financial dealings were not always honest.

Following his release, he probably travelled in Europe and Scotland^{[citation needed]} and it may have been at this time that he traded wine to Cadiz, Porto and Lisbon. By 1695 he was back in England, using the name "Defoe", and serving as a "commissioner of the glass duty", responsible for collecting the tax on bottles. In 1696 he was operating a tile and brick factory in what is now Tilbury, Essex and living in the parish of Chadwell St Mary.

Writing[link]

Pamphleteering and prison[link]

Daniel Defoe in the pillory, 1862 line engraving by James Charles Armytage after Eyre Crowe

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 to a standing army during disarmament after the Treaty of Ryswick (1697) had ended the Nine Years' War (1688–97). His most successful poem, The True-Born Englishman (1701), defended the king against the perceived xenophobia of his enemies, satirising the English claim to racial purity. In 1701 Defoe, flanked by a guard of sixteen gentlemen of quality, presented the Legion's Memorial to the Speaker of the House of Commons, later his employer, Robert Harley. 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 in 1702 once again created a political upheaval as the king was replaced by Queen Anne, who immediately began her offensive against Nonconformists.^[4] A natural target, Defoe's pamphleteering and political activities resulted in his arrest and placement in a pillory on 31 July 1703, principally on account of a pamphlet entitled The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters; Or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church,^[7] purporting to argue for their extermination. In it he ruthlessly satirised both the High church Tories and those Dissenters who hypocritically practised so-called "occasional conformity", such as his Stoke Newington neighbour Sir Thomas Abney. Though it was published anonymously, the true authorship was quickly discovered and Defoe was arrested.^[4] He was charged with seditious libel. After a trial at the Old Bailey in front of the notoriously sadistic judge Salathiel Lovell, Defoe was found guilty.^[2] Lovell sentenced him to a punitive fine, to public humiliation in a pillory, and to an indeterminate length of imprisonment which would only end upon the discharge of the punitive fine.^[2] 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 historicity of this story is questioned by most scholars, 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".^[5] (Thomas Cochrane, the 10th Earl of Dundonald and famous Royal Navy officer, was sentenced to the pillory but was excused for fear his popularity would cause a riot.)

After his three days in the pillory, Defoe went into Newgate Prison. Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, brokered his release in exchange for Defoe's co-operation as an intelligence agent for the Tories. In exchange for his cooperation with the rival political side, Harley paid some of Defoe's outstanding debts, improving his financial situation considerably.^[4] Within a week of his release from prison, Defoe witnessed the Great Storm of 1703 which raged from 26 to 27 November. It caused severe damage to London and Bristol and uprooted millions of trees and killed over 8,000 people, mostly at sea. The event became the subject of Defoe's The Storm (1704), a collection of witness accounts of the tempest.^[8] Many regard it as one of the world's first examples of modern journalism.^[9] In the same year he set up his periodical A Review of the Affairs of France 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 affair. When Harley was ousted from the ministry in 1708 Defoe continued writing it to support Godolphin, then again to support Harley and the Tories in the Tory ministry of 1710 to 1714. After the Tories fell from power with the death of Queen Anne, Defoe continued doing intelligence work for the Whig government, writing "Tory" pamphlets that actually undermined the Tory point of view.^[4]

Not all of Defoe's pamphlet writing was political. One pamphlet (originally published anonymously) entitled A True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs. Veal the Next Day after her Death to One Mrs. Bargrave at Canterbury the 8th of September, 1705, deals with interaction between the spiritual realm and the physical realm. It was most likely written in support of Charles Drelincourt's The Christian Defense against the Fears of Death (1651). It describes Mrs. Bargrave's encounter with an old friend Mrs. Veal, after she had died. It is clear from this piece and other writings, that while the political portion of Defoe's life was fairly dominant, it was by no means the only aspect.

Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707[link]

No fewer than 545 titles, ranging from satirical poems, political and religious pamphlets and volumes have been ascribed to Defoe (note: in their Critical Bibliography (1998), Furbank and Owens argue for the much smaller number of 276 published items). His ambitious business ventures saw him bankrupt by 1692, with a wife and seven children to support. In 1703, he published a satirical pamphlet against the High Tories and in favour of religious tolerance entitled The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters; Or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church. As has happened with ironic writings before and since, this pamphlet was widely misunderstood but eventually its author was prosecuted for seditious libel and was sentenced to be pilloried, fined 200 marks and detained at the Queen's pleasure.

Title page from Daniel Defoe's: The History Of The Union Of Great Britain dated 1709 and printed in Edinburgh by the Heirs of Anderson

In despair, he wrote to 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 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 Act of Union 1707.

In 1709 Defoe authored a rather lengthy book entitled, The History Of The Union Of Great Britain; an Edinburgh publication printed by the Heirs of Anderson.^[10]

The book was not authored anonymously and cites Defoe as twice^[11][12] taking credit for being its author. An evolution expounded in the book which attempts to explain the facts leading up to the Act of Union 1707 dates all the way back to the 6 December 1604^[13] when King James was presented with a proposed embellishment for unification. This so-called "first draft" for unification took place a full one-hundred years before the signing of the 1707 accord, which respectively preceded the commencement of Robinson Crusoe' by another full ten years.

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 to do everything possible to help secure acquiescence in 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), which are readily available, 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. Years later John Clerk of Penicuik, a leading Unionist, wrote in his memoirs that,

He was a spy among us, but not known as such, otherwise the Mob of Edinburgh would pull him to pieces.

Defoe being a Presbyterian who had suffered in England for his convictions, was accepted as an adviser to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and committees of the Parliament of Scotland. He told Harley that he was "privy to all their folly" but "Perfectly unsuspected as with corresponding with anybody in England". He was then able to influence the proposals that were put to Parliament and reported back:

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

For Scotland he used different arguments, even the opposite of those he used in England, for example, usually ignoring the English doctrine of the Sovereignty of Parliament, telling the Scots that they could have complete confidence in the guarantees in the Treaty. Some of his pamphlets were purported to be written by Scots, misleading even reputable historians into quoting them as evidence of Scottish opinion of the time. The same is true of a massive history of the Union which Defoe published in 1709 and which some historians still treat as a valuable contemporary source for their own works. Defoe took pains to give his history an air of objectivity by giving some space to arguments against the Union but always having the last word for himself.

He disposed of the main Union opponent, Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun by ignoring him. Nor does he account for the deviousness of the Duke of Hamilton, the official leader of the various factions opposed to the Union, who seemingly betrayed his former colleagues when he switched to the Unionist/Government side in the decisive final stages of the debate.

Defoe made no attempt to explain why the same Parliament of Scotland which was so vehement for its independence from 1703 to 1705 became so supine in 1706. He received very little reward from his paymasters and of course no recognition for his services by the government. He made use of his Scottish experience to write his Tour thro' the whole Island of Great Britain, published in 1726, where he admitted that the increase of trade and population in Scotland which he had predicted as a consequence of the Union, was "not the case, but rather the contrary".

Defoe's description of Glasgow (Glaschu) as a "Dear Green Place" has often been misquoted as a Gaelic translation for the town. The Gaelic Glas could mean grey or green, chu means dog or hollow. Glaschu probably actually means "Green Hollow". The "Dear Green Place", like much of Scotland, was a hotbed of unrest against the Union. The local Tron minister urged his congregation "to up and anent for the City of God". The "Dear Green Place" and "City of God" required government troops to put down the rioters tearing up copies of the Treaty, as at almost every mercat cross in Scotland.

When Defoe visited in the mid 1720s, he claimed that the hostility towards his party was, "because they were English and because of the Union, which they were almost universally exclaimed against".

Late writing and novels[link]

The extent and particulars of Defoe's writing in the period from the Tory fall in 1714 to the publication of Robinson Crusoe in 1719 is widely contested. Defoe comments on the tendency to attribute tracts of uncertain authorship to him in his apologia Appeal to Honour and Justice (1715), a defence of his part in Harley's Tory ministry (1710–14). Other works that are thought to anticipate his novelistic career include: The Family Instructor (1715), an immensely successful conduct manual on religious duty; Minutes of the Negotiations of Monsr. Mesnager (1717), in which he impersonates Nicolas Mesnager, the French plenipotentiary who negotiated the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) and A Continuation of the Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy (1718), a satire on European politics and religion, professedly written by a Muslim in Paris.

Memorial to "Daniel De-Foe", Bunhill Fields, City Road, London.

From 1719 to 1724, Defoe published the novels for which he is famous (see below). In the final decade of his life, he also wrote conduct manuals, including Religious Courtship (1722), The Complete English Tradesman (1726) and The New Family Instructor (1727). He published a number of books decrying the breakdown of the social order, such as The Great Law of Subordination Considered (1724) and Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business (1725) and works on the supernatural, like The Political History of the Devil (1726), A System of Magick (1726) and An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions (1727). His works on foreign travel and trade include A General History of Discoveries and Improvements (1727) and Atlas Maritimus and Commercialis (1728). Perhaps his greatest achievement with the novels is the magisterial A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain (1724–27), which provided a panoramic survey of British trade on the eve of the Industrial Revolution.

Novels[link]

His novels include:

• Robinson Crusoe (1719)
• The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719)
• Serious reflections during the life and surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe: with his Vision of the angelick world (1720)
• Captain Singleton (1720)
• A Journal of the Plague Year (1722)
• Colonel Jack (1722)
• Moll Flanders (1722)
• Roxana (1724)
• Memoirs of a Cavalier

Defoe also wrote a three-volume travel book, Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724–27) that provided a vivid first-hand account of the state of the country. Other non-fiction books include The Complete English Tradesman (1726) and London, the Most Flourishing City in the Universe (1728). Defoe published over 560 books and pamphlets and is considered to be the founder of British journalism.

[edit] Robinson Crusoe

Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe (1719) tells of a man's shipwreck on a deserted island and his subsequent adventures. The author based part of his narrative on the story of the Scottish castaway Alexander Selkirk, who spent four years stranded on the island of Juan Fernandez.^[4] He may have also been inspired by the Latin or English translation of a book by the Andalusian-Arab Muslim polymath Ibn Tufail, who was known as "Abubacer" in Europe. The Latin edition of the book was entitled Philosophus Autodidactus and it was an earlier novel that is also set on a deserted island.^{[14][15][16][17]}

A house near London, England, where Defoe once resided.

Tim Severin's book Seeking Robinson Crusoe (2002) unravels a much wider range of potential sources of inspiration. Severin concludes his investigations by stating that the real Robinson Crusoe figure was Henry Pitman, a castaway who had been surgeon to the Duke of Monmouth. Pitman's short book about his desperate escape from a Caribbean penal colony for his part in the Monmouth Rebellion, his shipwrecking and subsequent desert island misadventures was published by J. Taylor of Paternoster Street, London, whose son William Taylor later published Defoe's novel. Severin argues that since Pitman appears to have lived in the lodgings above the father's publishing house and since Defoe was a mercer in the area at the time, Defoe may have met Pitman and learned of his experiences as a castaway. If he didn't meet Pitman, Severin points out that Defoe, upon submitting even a draft of a novel about a castaway to his publisher, would undoubtedly have learned about Pitman's book published by his father, especially since the interesting castaway had previously lodged with them at their former premises.

Severin also provides evidence in his book that another publicised case^[18] of a real-life marooned Miskito Central American man named only as Will may have caught Defoe's attention, inspiring the depiction of Man Friday in his novel.

The novel has been variously read as an allegory for the development of civilisation, as a manifesto of economic individualism and as an expression of European colonial desires but it also shows the importance of repentance and illustrates the strength of Defoe's religious convictions. It is also considered by many to be the first novel written in English. Early critics, such as Robert Louis Stevenson admired it saying that the footprint scene in Crusoe was one of the four greatest in English literature and most unforgettable; more prosaically, Dr. Wesley Vernon has seen the origins of forensic podiatry in this episode.^[3] It has inspired a new genre, the Robinsonade as works like Johann David Wyss's The Swiss Family Robinson (1812) adapt its premise and has provoked modern postcolonial responses, including J. M. Coetzee's Foe (1986) and Michel Tournier's Vendredi ou les Limbes du Pacifique (in English, Friday) (1967). Two sequels followed, Defoe's The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719) and his Serious reflections during the life and surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe: with his Vision of the angelick world (1720). Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726) in part parodies Defoe's adventure novel.

[edit] Captain Singleton

Defoe's next novel was Captain Singleton (1720), a bipartite adventure story whose first half covers a traversal of Africa and whose second half taps into the contemporary fascination with piracy. It has been commended for its sensitive depiction of the close relationship between the eponymous hero and his religious mentor, the Quaker William Walters.

[edit] Memoirs of a Cavalier

Later, Defoe wrote Memoirs of a Cavalier (1720), set during the Thirty Years' War and the English Civil War.

[edit] A Journal of the Plague Year

A work that is often read as if it were non-fiction is his account of the Great Plague of London in 1665: A Journal of the Plague Year, a complex historical novel published in 1722. In November 1703, a hurricane-like storm hit London, now known as The Great Storm. (It remains one of the greatest storms in British history.) Yet another of the remarkable events in Defoe's life, the storm was the subject of his book The Storm.^[3] Defoe describes the aftermath of the incident, “The streets lay so covered with tiles and slates from the tops of the houses [. . .] that all the tiles in 50 miles round would be able to repair but a small part of it."^[3]

[edit] Colonel Jack

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

[edit] Moll Flanders and Roxana

Also in 1722, Defoe wrote Moll Flanders, another first-person picaresque novel of the fall and eventual redemption of a lone woman in 17th century England. The titular heroine appears as a whore, bigamist and thief, lives in The Mint, commits adultery and incest, yet manages to retain the reader's sympathy.

Moll Flanders and Defoe's final novel Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress (1724) are examples of the remarkable way in which Defoe seems to inhabit his fictional (yet "drawn from life") characters, not least in that they are women. The latter narrates the moral and spiritual decline of a high society courtesan.

Death[link]

Daniel Defoe died on 24 April 1731, probably while in hiding from his creditors. He was interred in Bunhill Fields, London, where his grave can still be visited.

Defoe is known to have used at least 198 pen names.^[19]

Bibliography[link]

Fiction

• The Consolidator or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the Moon (1705)
• Atlantis Major (1711)
• Robinson Crusoe (1719)
• The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719)
• The King of Pirates (1719)
• Captain Singleton (1720)
• Memoirs of a Cavalier (1720)
• A Journal of the Plague Year (1722)
• Moll Flanders (1722)
• Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress (1724)
• The Pirate Gow, an account of John Gow
• Colonel Jack

Non-fiction

• The Storm (1704)
• The Family Instructor (1715)
• A General History of the Pyrates (1724), Defoe's authorship of this pseudonymous work is disputed
• A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (1724–1727)
• The Political History of the Devil (1726)

Essays

• The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1703)
• Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe (1720)
• The Complete English Tradesman
• An Essay Upon Projects
• An Essay Upon Literature (1726)
• Mere Nature Delineated (1726)
• Conjugal Lewdness (1727)
• A Plan of the English Commerce (1728)

Poems

• The True-Born Englishman: A Satyr (1701)
• Hymn to the Pillory (1703)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Daniel Defoe

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Daniel Defoe

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Daniel Defoe

• Works by Daniel Defoe at Project Gutenberg
• Daniel Defoe fiction at The Literature Network
• Full online versions of various copies of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and the Robinsonades
• TrueScans.com Click on Defoe to obtain comprehensive information on The History Of The Union Of Great Britain Edinburgh, Heirs of Anderson, 1709
• Full texts in German and English – eLibrary Projekt (eLib)
• The Journeys of Daniel Defoe around Britain (from a Vision of Britain)
• Russian toponyms in Daniel Defoe's novels
• Life of Daniel Defoe at luminarium.org
• Defoe, Daniel 1661?-1731 WorldCat Identity

v t e Works by Daniel Defoe Novels Robinson Crusoe (1719) The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719) Captain Singleton (1720) Memoirs of a Cavalier (1720) Moll Flanders (1721) A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress (1724) Colonel Jack Other fiction The Consolidator or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the Moon (1705) Atlantis Major (1711) The King of Pirates (1719) The Pirate Gow, an account of John Gow Non-fiction The Storm (1704) The Family Instructor (1715) Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe (1720) A General History of the Pyrates (1724, disputed) A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain (1724-27) The Complete English Tradesman The Political History of the Devil (1726) Mere Nature Delineated (1726) Conjugal Lewdness (1727) Essays The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1703) An Essay Upon Literature (1726) Conjugal Lewdness (1727) A Plan of the English Commerce (1728) An Essay Upon Projects Poems The True-Born Englishman (1701) Hymn to the Pillory (1703)