Alexander Selkirk, born Alexander Selcraig, (1676-13 December 1721) was a Scottish sailor who spent four years as a castaway on an uninhabited island; it is probable that his travails provided the inspiration for Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" Wikipedia
BRITISH, Japanese and Chilean archaeologists have discovered the spot where Alexander Selkirk, the model for the castaway Robinson Crusoe, survived in solitude for four years and four months. www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1783811,00.html
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Alexander Selkirk. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Selkirk
Alexander Selkirk: The Real Robinson Crusoe by James S. Bruce and Mayme S. Bruce Published in The Explorers Journal, Spring 1993. www.ini.unizh.ch/~tobi/fun/alex/alex.php
A GLINT of metal in the soil marked the end of a 13-year quest by a Japanese explorer to locate the base camp of Alexander Selkirk, the marooned 18th-century mariner, whose ordeal inspired the book Robinson Crusoe. heritage.scotsman.com/greatscots.cfm?id=1975692005
Alexander Selkirk was born in Largo, Fife, E. Scotland in 1676. His father was a prosperous leather tanner and cobbler in the small village and likely had similar hopes for his son. Alexander, however, was a precocious and active child, not given to a c www.essortment.com/all/alexanderselkir_rehj.htm
Provisioned with a musket, gunpowder, carpenter's tools, a knife, a Bible, some clothing and tobacco Selkirk was deposited on the deserted island. Later Selkirk said he initially thought his prospective change of life would be "more eligible than being e www.travellinghistorian.com/crusoe.html
Not everyone agrees that Alexander Selkirk was the inspiration or the model for Robinson Crusoe. The passages from contemporary accounts about Selkirk will let you decide for yourself how much Defoe relied on the details of Selkirk's story, which was wel academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_18c/defoe...
