John Milton author page

John Milton biography

John Milton (1608–1674) was an English poet, scholar and civil servant whose writings shaped seventeenth-century literature and political thought. He was born in London and educated at St Paul’s School before studying at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he received a BA in 1629 and an MA in 1632.

Milton’s early works include the poems L’Allegro and Il Penseroso (1632), the masque Comus (1634) and the elegy Lycidas (1638). These established his reputation for learned, lyrical verse.

During the English Civil War he wrote prose tracts on church reform, divorce law and freedom of the press. His pamphlet Areopagitica (1644) remains one of the most influential defences of free expression in English.

In 1649 Milton was appointed Secretary for Foreign Tongues to the Council of State under Oliver Cromwell, drafting diplomatic correspondence and official publications in Latin. He continued in this role until the Restoration in 1660.

By the 1650s Milton had become blind, dictating his later works to assistants. His epic poem Paradise Lost was published in 1667 in ten books, later revised into twelve in the 1674 edition. Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes followed in 1671.

Milton died in London in 1674. Paradise Lost is widely regarded as one of the greatest works in English literature.

Selected recognition: publication of Paradise Lost in 1667.