At a glance
- Age
- 59
- Born
- November 28, 1628
- From
- Elstow
- Nationality
- Kingdom of England
Biography
The Pilgrim's Progress is the reason his name still circulates. It is a Christian allegory, and it did something beyond its immediate religious purpose: it became a model that later writers borrowed from, a template for telling a story as a journey. Readers who have never picked up the book still recognise the shape of the thing.
Its author was an English writer and a nonconformist preacher, born in Elstow in November 1628. Preaching outside the established church was the work he was known for in his own time, and the writing grew out of it. Many of the roughly sixty titles he produced were sermons carried further onto the page — the argument he had made aloud, set down and extended.
He died in August 1688. The bulk of his output has faded into the reference lists, but the allegory kept its readers, and the reason is worth noting: he wrote about the difficulty of staying on a chosen road, in a form that a person with little schooling could follow.
Its author was an English writer and a nonconformist preacher, born in Elstow in November 1628. Preaching outside the established church was the work he was known for in his own time, and the writing grew out of it. Many of the roughly sixty titles he produced were sermons carried further onto the page — the argument he had made aloud, set down and extended.
He died in August 1688. The bulk of his output has faded into the reference lists, but the allegory kept its readers, and the reason is worth noting: he wrote about the difficulty of staying on a chosen road, in a form that a person with little schooling could follow.
