Robinson Crusoe

Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe was first published in 1719. The main character, Robinson Crusoe, is a castaway who spends 28 years on an isolated tropical island. He encounters cannibals, captives and mutineers before being rescued. By the nineteenth century the term ‘Robinson Crusoe’ was virtually synonymous with the term ‘castaway’, and conjured up an image of a long-haired, heavily bearded man carrying a rudimentary walking stick.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe