Desert island Autodidactus" inspired Robert Boyle, an acquaintance of Pococke, to write his own philosophical novel set on a deserted island, "The Aspiring Naturalist". Ibn al-Nafis' "Theologus Autodidactus" was also eventually translated into English in the early 20th century. Published in 1719, Daniel Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe" about a castaway on a desert island has spawned so many imitations in film, television and radio that its name was used to define a genre, Robinsonade. The novel features Man Friday, Crusoe's personal assistant. It is likely that Defoe took inspiration for Crusoe from a Scottish sailor named Alexander Selkirk, who was rescued in
Diary of a Man in Despair into a number of languages. An English-language translation by Paul Rubens then appeared in 1970, published by the Macmillan Company, and was reprinted in 2000. In 2013 it was republished by New York Review Books, with an afterword by Richard J. Evans. Diary of a Man in Despair Diary of a Man in Despair ("Tagebuch eines Verzweifelten") is a journal written by the German writer Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen during the 1930s and 1940s. It expresses his passionate opposition to Adolf Hitler and Nazism. It was originally published in 1947, but received little recognition. It has since been republished in English and