John Bunyan

John Bunyan (November 1628 – August 31, 1688) was an English Puritan preacher, popular allegorical writer, and Particular (Reformed) Baptist. Born in Elstow, Bedfordshire, the son of a tinker (itinerant metal-worker), he served briefly in the Parliamentary army during the English Civil War. He joined John Gifford's Bedford Baptist congregation in 1653, was converted shortly thereafter, and began preaching in public in 1655 after Gifford's death.

He served 12 years in the Bedford county jail (1660–1672, with a brief 1675–1676 second imprisonment) under Charles II's Act of Uniformity for preaching without Anglican license. The first installment of The Pilgrim's Progress (1678) was written during the imprisonment. He authored 60+ works including the spiritual-autobiography Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666), the allegorical The Holy War (1682), and The Pilgrim's Progress, Part II (1684).