Johann David Wyss

Johann David Wyss (1743–1818), is best remembered for his book The Swiss Family Robinson. Like the narrator of his famous story of survival on an uninhabited island, Wyss was a Swiss pastor who had four sons. It was to entertain and instruct these children that he devised the idea of the island and its plethora of natural resources. The book was edited by his son, Johann Rudolf, a scholar who wrote the Swiss national anthem. Another son, Johann Emmanuel, illustrated the book.