Download or read book The Fortress of American Solitude written by Shawn Thomson and published by Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For individuals who are interested in how Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and other narratives of shipwrecks and castaways influenced antebellum American Culture, Shawn Thomson's The Fortress of American Solitude is useful. More specifically, for Melville scholars, the second, third, and fourth chapters provide some interesting insight into possible readings for how Defoe's novel-and the castaway genre in general-may have influenced Melville's call to sea and the penning of some of his most interesting characters.