Daniel Defoe (c. 1660–1731) was an English writer, journalist, and spy, best known for his novels Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders. He was a prolific and versatile writer, producing more than 500 works—including pamphlets, poems, and political and religious satires—on diverse topics such as crime, marriage, religion, and economics. Defoe was a controversial figure in his own time and has been variously described as one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as a pioneer of economic journalism, and as the founder of English journalism.