Rob Bonney, age 11, of Jackson, Mississippi, for his question:

Was there a real Robinson Crusoe?

Daniel Defoe based his wonder story on the true life adventure of a marooned sailor. He was Alexander Selkirk, born in Fifeshire, Scotland, in the year 1676; at the age of 28, Selkirk was put ashore on an island in the Juan Fernandez group, some 400 miles off the coast of Chile.

The real life Crusoe lived in solitude on his island for four years and four months. He was rescued in the year 1709 and returned to England in 1711. Two sea captains published stories of Selkirk's island adventures.

Selkirk himself told his own story in print. Daniel Defoe used these accounts, together with facts gathered from meeting the island hero, added his own touch of story telling genius, and come up with the never‑to‑he­ forgotten tale of Robinson Crusoe.