biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1628–88)
|
| biography:
| Writer, born in Elstow, Bedfordshire, SC England, UK. He worked as a tinker, and fought in the parliamentary army during the English Civil War (1644–5). In 1653 he joined a Nonconformist Christian fellowship, preaching around Bedford. In 1660 he was arrested for preaching without a licence and spent 12 years in Bedford county gaol, where he wrote prolifically, including his impassioned and tormented autobiography, Grace Abounding (1666). Briefly released after the Declaration of Indulgence (1672), he was reimprisoned for six months in the town gaol, and there wrote the first part of the The Pilgrim's Progress (published 1678), a vision of salvation told allegorically as if it were a journey through life. Returning to his career, he acted as pastor in Bedford for 16 years, where he wrote the second part of The Pilgrim's Progress (1684). |
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