Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) was an English author best known for his adventure novel, Robinson Crusoe, that he wrote later in life. A prolific writer, Defoe authored several books on economics, history, biography and crime. He pursued a variety of careers including merchant, soldier, secret agent and political pamphleteer, but is best remembered for his fiction. Daniel Defoe's other widely read books include Roxana, Moll Flanders and A Journal of the Plague Year. The name of the Robinson Crusoe Island, located in the South Pacific Ocean off the coast of Chile, was inspired by Defoe's famous story.