The Castaway’s Tale

In 1729, a remarkable book appeared in London. The author, Robert Drury, took up residence at Old Tom’s coffeehouse in the center of the city, welcoming the curious to hear his incredible tale: a voyage to Asia on an East India ship, floundering off the coast of Madagascar and, at just fourteen years of age, how Drury became enslaved on that island for the next decade and a half before a miraculous return to England.
But did Drury actually write the book that bore his name? Or was it an invention from none other than Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, the famous but fictionalized castaway story based on true events? Or was Drury’s story real and was Defoe, unnamed and unattributed, the man who put the book together based on what Drury told him?
Drawing from newly available archival material, this work tells the full story of Robert Drury, Daniel Defoe, and the connection between them, piecing together the puzzle of their potential collaboration and presenting a fuller biography of Drury than previously available. The result is a story as full of twists and turns as Drury’s own.

Evan Balkan is the author of three novels and seven books of nonfiction, as well as many essays and short stories in an array of publications. His screenplays have won multiple fellowships and awards. He coordinates the creative writing program at the Community College of Baltimore County, where he founded the Compass Press, the only university-style press housed a community college in the United States.

Evan Balkan
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 230
Bibliographic Info: 18 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2025
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9255-5
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5544-4
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments ix
Preface 1

 1. From London to Madagascar 3
 2. Defoe’s Early Years 32
 3. On Madagascar 38
 4. Defoe Comes of Age 46
 5. Enslaved 54
 6. Defoe to the Pillory 66
 7. Drury Goes Native 71
 8. Defoe’s Travel Writing 88
 9. Drury Tries to Escape 97
10. Defoe’s Literary Inventions 105
11. Drury the Anthropologist 112
12. Robinson Crusoe 122
13. Home 126
14. Defoe Takes on Madagascar (and Others) 141
15. The End 150
16. The Scholars Weigh In 166
17. Who Wrote Robert Drury’s Journal? 185

Chapter Notes 197
Bibliography 213
Index 217