John Bunyan (1628-1688) was an English writer and Baptist preacher best remembered for his Christian allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress. He also wrote about 60 other titles, many of them expanded sermons.
John Bunyan was born in 1628 in the parish of Elstow, Bedford. After receiving some schooling, he joined the Parliamentary army at the age of 16, during the first stage of the English Civil War. After three years, he returned to Elstow and took up the trade of tinker. He became interested in religion after his marriage, and attended first the parish church and then joined the Bedford Meeting, a non-conformist group in Bedford, and became a preacher. After the restoration of the monarch, the freedom of non-conformists was curtailed, and Bunyan was arrested. He spent the next 12 years in jail as he refused to give up preaching.
During this time, he wrote a spiritual autobiography entitled, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. He also began work on his most famous book, The Pilgrim’s Progress, which was not published until some years after his release.
Bunyan is best remembered for The Pilgrim’s Progress, a book which gained immediate popularity. His unpolished style, which fell out of favour during the 18th century again became popular with Romanticism, when poet Robert Southey wrote Bunyan’s appreciative biography in 1830. His reputation was further enhanced by the evangelical revival and he became a favourite author of the Victorians. The tercentenary of Bunyan’s birth, celebrated in 1928, elicited praise from his former adversary, the Church of England. Bunyan’s influence can be seen in the works of well-known writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott and George Bernard Shaw.