Thre caption for this image by NC Wyeth that accompanies the tale of Robinson Crusoe by Dniel Defoe reads: 'My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design.' Robinson Crusoe is a novel written by the English novelist Daniel Defoe and published in 1719. A fictional autobiography, it tells the tale of an English castaway named Robinson Crusoe (seen here with his father) who spent 28 years on a remote tropical island near Venezuela before he was rescued. Newell Convers Wyeth, known as N. C. Wyeth, was an American artist and illustrator. He was the pupil of artist Howard Pyle and became one of America's greatest illustrators.