John Martin Literary Reinvention: Daniel Defoe His Life & Writing 1644-1731

Beyond BeliefJohn Coetzee (the Nobel Prize winner and author of Foe)I have read your Defoe biography and have found it a real eyeopener congratulations. As for the blackmailing of Defoe by Elisabeth White and her father, you certainly make out a persuasive case for it, and more generally for a highlycoded reading of Defoes fictions. Library JournalIt offers informed speculations... based on a careful and exhaustive examination of the record... Martins speculations on how Defoes sexuality affected his life is one of the books most persuasive aspects, this reading of Defoes novels is a breath of fresh air. The Man Himself A life of Johnathan SwiftEdward, OHare, PoliticoThe Man Himself is one of those rare biographies where the subject comes across so vividly you can almost hear their heartbeat rising from its page... this is an erudite accomplished and hugely enjoyable biography of one of the worlds true giants. The Man Who Never WasProfessor Kevin BarryThe contribution made by John Martin is fundamental... the book provides documentary evidence in support of a hypothesis that Defoe was born in 1644 a full fifteen years earlier than is generally accepted... this study offers scholars fresh evidence for a rereading of Defoes life and work. Professor Irving RothmanMartins originality lies in his challenge of traditional scholarship, in his ordering of a mass of archival findings, in his insistence upon the verities that grant reallife etiologies to the behaviour and motivation of... | John Martin Literary Reinvention: Daniel Defoe His Life & Writing 1644-1731