John Bunyan

John Bunyan
Born	1628; baptised (1628-11-30)30 November 1628 Elstow, Bedfordshire, England
Died	31 August 1688(1688-08-31) (aged 59) London, England
Occupation	Writer and Puritan preacher
Genre	Christian allegory, sermons, Socratic dialogue, poetry
Notable works	The Pilgrim's Progress, The Life and Death of Mr. Badman, The Holy War
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John Bunyan (/ˈbʌnjən/; 1628 – 31 August 1688) was an English writer and Puritan preacher. He is best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress, which also became an influential literary model. In addition to The Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan wrote nearly sixty titles, many of them expanded sermons.

Bunyan came from the village of Elstow, near Bedford. He had some schooling and, at the age of sixteen, joined the Parliamentary Army at Newport Pagnell during the first stage of the English Civil War. After three years in the army, he returned to Elstow and took up the trade of tinker, which he had learned from his father. He became interested in religion after his marriage, attending first the parish church and then joining the Bedford Meeting, a nonconformist group in St John's church Bedford, and later became a preacher. After the restoration of the monarchy, when the freedom of nonconformists was curtailed, Bunyan was arrested and spent the next twelve years in prison because he refused to give up preaching. During this time, he wrote a spiritual autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, and began work on his most famous book, The Pilgrim's Progress.

In 1676, Charles II withdrew his Act of Indulgence and four years later, Bunyan was again imprisoned – this time only for six months. During that time, he completed The Pilgrim's Progress.

Bunyan's later years were spent in relative comfort and he continued to be a popular author and preacher, and was the pastor of the Bedford Meeting. He died aged 59 after falling ill on a journey to London and is buried in Bunhill Fields. The Pilgrim's Progress became one of the most published books in the English language; 1,300 editions having been printed by 1938, 250 years after the author's death.

Bunyan is remembered in the Church of England with a Lesser Festival on 30 August.^[1] Some other churches of the Anglican Communion, such as the Anglican Church of Australia, honour him on the day of his death (31 August).