Milestones: John Bunyan, Mark Twain, & Toni Morrison

Posted byRebecca BuddPosted inI'm Reading a Book, John Bunyan, Mark Twain, Milestones, Toni MorrisonTags:, , ,

On this day in history, we are marking three remarkable events. Without question, February 18th was a stellar day for readers.

February 18, 1678 , John Bunyan’s “The Pilgrim’s Progress” was published in Holborn, London, by Nathaniel Ponder, known to be a bookseller and publisher of nonconformist works. The Pilgrim’s Progress was written during John Bunyan’s 12 years of imprisonment.

The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. “Within Sight of the City to Which They Went” The Pilgrim’s Progress c1907 Illustrated by Byam Shaw

On February 18, 1885,  Mark Twain published the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” in the United States. As a sequel to “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” which was published in 1876, the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” has come to be regarded by many as “the Great American Novel.”

Cover of the book “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, 1884 (Public Domain)

Toni Morrison, original name Chloe Anthony Wofford, was born February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio. I have added “Beloved,” written in 1987, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, to my reading for 2022.

First-edition dust jacket cover of Beloved (1987) by the American author Toni Morrison. (Public Domain)

Published by Rebecca Budd

Blogger, Visual Storyteller, Podcaster, Traveler and Life-long Learner

16 thoughts on “Milestones: John Bunyan, Mark Twain, & Toni Morrison”

  2. Hi Rebecca, I just love Pilgrims Progress and started with the children’s version called The Land of Far Beyond by Enid Blyton. I loved it so much (The Land of Far Beyond) that I purchased it for GBP 90 from Amazon as a limited edition re-print some time ago. Of course, I’ve got Pilgrims Progress as a hardcopy.

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  3. Thank you for including these authors from times past. Their stories have been a source of encouragement and joy for thousands of readers during the years. And they are on the list for todays students for study and enjoyment. Thank you for including the pictures and short stories as part of your introduction, I enjoyed! I remember the teachers reading these stories and others in the opening exercises in our one room school house! They have been around that long! ! Now, they have been made into movies–what a treat..

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  4. Milestones indeed. We actually read Pilgrim’s Progress in school when I was about 12, and I remember enjoying it, though on the level of a good yarn at that point. And I’ve read (and enjoyed) the other two as well.

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    1. I was truly scared when I read about Doubting Castle and Giant Despair. I have yet to read “Beloved” by Toni Morrison. That is on my TBR for 2022. It seems that we make our own milestones. I am now keeping track of when I read a book.

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    1. I agree – WOW!!! What I found fascinating was that Bunyan, Twain and Morrison’s narratives, in very different ways, reveal the complexities of human experience – that nothing is certain, that we are challenged by external forces and internal fears and doubts.

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    1. I have been putting it off for several years. I purposely did not see the movie because I wanted to read the book first. But with Oprah and Danny Glover it was very hard not to give in to temptation. So I did watch the trailer. LOL

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