death_place death_date birth_place notableworks genre image article_title name occupation
london , england 31 august 1688 elstow , bedfordshire , england '' the pilgrim 's progress '' christian allegory , sermons john bunyan.jpg john bunyan
 john bunyan writer , preacher
john bunyan

john bunyan -lrb- ; baptised 30 november 162831 august 1688 -rrb- was an english writer and baptist preacher best remembered as the author of the religious allegory `` the pilgrim 's progress '' .
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 little schooling and at the age of sixteen joined the parliamentary army 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 learnt 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 bedford , and becoming a preacher .
after the restoration of the monarch , when the freedom of nonconformists was curtailed , bunyan was arrested and spent the next twelve years in gaol as he refused to undertake 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 '' , which was not published until some years after his release .
bunyan 's later years , in spite of another shorter term of imprisonment , were spent in relative comfort as a popular author and preacher , and 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 .
he is remembered in the church of england with a lesser festival on 30 august , and on the liturgical calendar of the united states episcopal church on 29 august .
some other churches of the anglican communion , such as the anglican church of australia , honour him on the day of his death -lrb- 31 august -rrb- .
