# Swiss Family Robinson: Where Are They Now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 26, 2000, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-where-are-they-now/34580 "2000-09-26T10:34:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-where-are-they-now/34580/1 "2000-09-26T10:34:30Z")
- - - Just curious. The real peole, if there ever were. - I tried to look myself, but I can only seem to find three types of “Swiss Family Robinson” sites on the net: - ones that sell the book or movie, - ones that review the book or movie, - and a third that I don’t know what the hell is the deal, it just seems to unload dozens of banner ads on you, and nothing else - apparently no other content. The banner ads all load slow, and you can’t see anything until it’s finished. I waited thrugh about 30 of them and gave up. Half the ads seem to be for Disney crap, but that’s hardly any consolation. Somebody on a T-1 connection take a look and please tell me if I’m missing anything really great there, will ya? - MC ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-where-are-they-now/34580/2 "2000-09-26T12:08:33Z")
According to my search, author Johann David Wyss based his book “The Swiss Family Robinson”, written in 1813, on Daniel Dafoe’s book “Robinson Crusoe”. So it looks like the Robinsons weren’t ever real. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-where-are-they-now/34580/3 "2000-09-26T12:11:31Z")
Now, Dafoe’s novel, “The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” (1719) was based in part on the experience of Alexander Selkirk, and is often considered the first true novel in English. Now, who was Selkirk? He was a Scottish sailor. He was put ashore at his own request in the Juan Fernandez Islands, and remained there for over four years before his rescue in Febrary, 1709. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-where-are-they-now/34580/4 "2000-09-26T12:29:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AWB \* > \*\*Now, Dafoe’s novel, “The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” (1719) was based in part on the experience of Alexander Selkirk, and is often considered the first true novel in English. > \*\* IIRC you really have to work hard to find any connection between Selkirk and Robinson other that they were both on islands and that it’s a UL that Defoe had been insprired by him. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-where-are-they-now/34580/5 "2000-09-26T12:48:19Z")
So lemme get this straight. This book was written around 1813, right? And the characters were all fictional, right? And the OP wants to know where they are today? … they’re getting lost in space with Dr. Smith as their companion. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-where-are-they-now/34580/6 "2000-09-26T13:05:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CKDextHavn \* > \*\*… they’re getting lost in space with Dr. Smith as their companion. \*\* “Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!” :D:D ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-where-are-they-now/34580/7 "2000-09-26T13:16:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Floater \* > \*\*IIRC you really have to work hard to find any connection between Selkirk and Robinson other that they were both on islands and that it’s a UL that Defoe had been insprired by him. \*\* Work real hard? Hardly. I found many and read 3 on-line encyclopedias that state that Selkirk was Dafoe’s model for Robinson Crusoe. One specifically states: > [@](#): > > \*Selkirk did not return to England until 1711 where he met the essayist, Richard Steele, who wrote up his story in a publication, “The Englishman” (1713). Daniel Defoe made use of this story in his novel “Robinson Crusoe”. Selkirk finally returned home to Scotland where he lived the life of a recluse but later went to sea again. He died at sea in 1721 at the age of forty-five. \* One of my sources for urban legends, Snopes, has nothing listed for Robinson Crusoe. So I tend to believe the encyclopedias. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-where-are-they-now/34580/8 "2000-09-26T13:30:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AWB \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Floater \* > > \*\*IIRC you really have to work hard to find any connection between Selkirk and Robinson other that they were both on islands and that it’s a UL that Defoe had been insprired by him. \*\* > > Work real hard? Hardly. I found many and read 3 on-line encyclopedias that state that Selkirk was Dafoe’s model for Robinson Crusoe. > > \*\* Sure, it’s an oft repeated story. I don’t deny that Defoe had heard about Selkirk and might have been inspired by his fate to write his own story, but, still IIRC, Selkirk was not the only one to have been marooned on an island, and when Robinson was shipwrecked Selkirk did it voluntarily. He was also fully equipped with everything he might need for his stay and the island was inhabited. So the only thing thing that Defoe borrowed from Selkirk is that he was marooned and not much else. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-where-are-they-now/34580/9 "2000-09-26T13:35:42Z")
Re: Lost in Space YEARS before the idiotic TV series appeared there was a comic book called “Space Family Robinson”, about the adventures of the space-going family named Robinson, who went about the galaxy in a saucer-shaped craft. It was published by Gold Key comics in the early 1960s, and it as surpringly GOOD. When Irwin Allen’s TV show came out the comic changed its name to “Lost in Space: Space Family Robinson”, despite the differences between the comic an the series (No Doctor Smith, no robot). Hardly anybody seems to know about SFR anymore, which is a pity. And considering how Harlan Ellison dealt with The Terminator, it makes me wonder how they would’ve fared if Gold Key had sued. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-where-are-they-now/34580/10 "2000-09-26T13:35:57Z")
And stories about marooned sailors go back to the Odyssey, at least.