Bunyan, John

John Bunyan, author of the great Christian allegory Pilgrim's Progress, was born into a tinker family.  As a youth, he was tormented by fits of depression, dreams of fiends trying to fly away with him, and voices telling him to 'sell Christ. ' He joined and preached to a Baptist society in Bedford, for which he was arrested and jailed for nearly 12 years.  While in prison he wrote Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners and began his allegorical masterpiece.

English writer and preacher, Bunyan is renowned as the author of The Pilgrim's Progress (1678). It achieved the feat of being the most widely read book in English after the Bible. It is now regarded as a classic and has been translated in various languages.