Daniel Defoe

About Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) was a highly significant English author, journalist, and political writer whose lasting fame rests primarily on his pioneering novel, *Robinson Crusoe*. His complex career spanned political pamphleteering, espionage, and business ventures, marking him as a key figure in the early modern period's evolving media landscape. MIT's Pantheon project recognizes this broad cultural and political influence by ranking him #731 in historical importance.

In the current digital landscape, Defoe's historical relevance appears to be experiencing an attention gap. With an HPI Rank of #731, his expected internet attention for 2025 might suggest a profile comparable to modern writers, yet he currently garners an estimated 331K Wikipedia views. This places him notably behind contemporaries in the field like Jack London (#952 importance, 653K views) or even far more popular contemporaries in the writer field like Isaac Asimov (#920 importance, 1.7M views).

While his attention is not negligible, a year-over-year decrease of 13.5% in views suggests a slow but measurable decline in immediate public interest, even as his short-term momentum from Q1 to Q3 showed a slight positive change of +3%.