R.M. Ballantyne, in full Robert Michael Ballantyne, (born April 24, 1825, Edinburgh, Scot.died Feb. 8, 1894, Rome, Italy), Scottish author chiefly famous for his adventure story The Coral Island (1858). This and all of Ballantyne's stories were written from personal experience. Daniel Defoe, (born 1660, London, Eng.died April 24, 1731, London), English novelist, pamphleteer, and journalist, author of Robinson Crusoe (171922) and Moll Flanders (1722). Defoe's father, James Foe, was a hard-working and fairly prosperous tallow chandler (perhaps also, later, a butcher), of Flemish descent. Jules Verne, (born February 8, 1828, Nantes, Francedied March 24, 1905, Amiens), prolific French author whose writings laid much of the foundation of modern science fiction.