ABSTRACT
THUS DEFOE PROVIDES a carefully chosen catalogue of items essential for Crusoe's survival in a strange land. Perhaps predictably, among the principal items to be secured in his forays out to the wrecked vessel are the paraphernalia of science - charts, mathematical instruments, compasses; yet, as experience has taught him, just as important to personal definition and orientation in an unfamiliar landscape are the precious commodities of books, ink, and paper. Cultural memory is in exile contingent on - even reinforced by - the continued practices of reading and writing.2 .
