Johann David Wyss

Johann David Wyss (1743–1818) was a Swiss pastor in Bern who wrote The Swiss Family Robinson to instruct and amuse his four sons, reading it to them in installments and never intending it for publication. His son Johann Rudolf Wyss, a professor of philosophy, edited the manuscript and published it in 1812 and 1813. A French translation by Isabelle de Montolieu added episodes, and the Godwins' English version of 1814 established it in Britain, from where it spread into countless adaptations. Wyss drew on Defoe and on the educational ideas of Rousseau, and the father in the book is clearly a self-portrait.