Further Editions and Numerations

It’s probably no surprise to learn that the Defoe's original story of Robinson Crusoe (with the adventures and pyrates) published in 1719 was hugely popular. What may be a little surprising to learn is that this text has been published in over a thousand different editions over the last few centuries since it's inception in the early 18th century. This number doesn’t even take into account the probably tens-of-thousands of spin-offs and retellings of Defoe's story. For the purposes of our research, we tackled the publication history of Robinson Crusoe during Defoe's lifetime and through the later 18th century. And the number of known English editions published during this time comes to about 130. So, not a thousand but still a great deal of editions for so short a time. During 1719 alone, there were eight editions generated and here are what the second, third, and fourth editions by W. Taylor look like: