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The story is told of how Defoe's manuscript was refused by many of the London publishers before William Taylor, one of the most esteemed and successful of them, accepted it. The book came out April 25th, and its success was immediate; a second edition was called for only seventeen days after the first; a third followed twenty-five days later, and a fourth on August 8th. The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; Being the Second and Last Part Of His Life. ... To which is added a Map of the World . . . was issued in August of the same year, and was followed on August 6, 1720, by a sequel called "Serious Reflections During The Life ... of Robinson Crusoe. " Further evidence of the popularity of the work is furnished by the piracies, numerous imitations, and translations that appeared within a short time after its publication.

No doubt the leading facts were suggested by the experiences of Alexander Selkirk, whose adventures had been published in 1712 by Captain Rogers in his "Cruising Voyage Round the World," but it was only the outline thus made use of, and the wonderful detail and descriptions were entirely original.

The first volume of Robinson Crusoe was published in 8vo. 1719, 364pp., preface 2pp., with an engraving of Robinson Crusoe, sometimes placed as a frontispiece, and was entered at Stationers’ Hall, for William Taylor, 23 April, 1719. Of this volume there were four editions in the same year, as is indicated on the title-pages. Sixth edition was printed in 1722, with plates.

The second volume, called “The farther adventures of Robinson Crusoe, being the second and last part of his life, &c. London, 1719, 8vo. pp. 373 was entered at Stationers’ Hall, 17 August, 1719. A second edition, with a map of the world, appears to have been published in the same year. This map was afterwards used in the fourth edition of the first part.

Robinson Crusoe is the most popular, delightful, and extraordinary of all Defoe’s Works, and has lost none of its original attraction, even at the distance of three centuries. It was Samuel Johnson who said: "Was there ever anything written by mere man that was wished longer by its readers, excepting ' Don Quixote,' ' Robinson Crusoe,' and the ' Pilgrim's Progress' ? "