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Inspired Editions: John Bunyan and His Illustrators

Beyond Battlefields - poster

John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, first published in 1678, remained enormously popular for hundreds of years. Artists have responded to Bunyan's allegorical tale in a variety of ways, some focusing on the action of the story or the psychological state of Bunyan''s protagonist, while others have completely reshaped the novel for different audiences. Recently book artist Angela Lorenz has created Life, Life, Eternal Life: Uncle Wiggily Meets the Pilgrim's Progress, a linear board game based on Bunyan's classic.

The exhibition was curated by Patti Houghton and Jay Satterfield and will be on display in the Class of 1965 Galleries in Rauner Special Collections Library from August 3 to September 30, 2007.

You may download a small, 8x10 version of the poster: InspiredEditions_Bunyan.jpg (2.7 MB) You may also download a handlist of the items in this exhibition: Bunyan.

Materials Included in the Exhibition

Case 1: Bunyan in New Worlds

Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress was enormously popular in early-nineteenth-century America and inexpensive editions with simple illustration were staple stock for New England printers.  The unpretentious volumes, often in tatters and occasionally colored by an enthusiastic youth, physically manifest the story’s role in the moral education of the country’s youth.

  1. John Bunyan. The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that Which is to Come. Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream. ... With a Variety of Pious, Judicious, and Practical Notes, from the Rev. Messrs. Mason, Burder, and Scott. Boston: Printed for Joseph Bumstead, 1806. 1926 Coll B862 c.2 or Illus A545ba
  2. John Bunyan. The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that Which is to Come. Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream. In two Parts … With Original Notes by Thomas Scott. Hartford: S. Andrus, 1827. 1926 Coll B862p 1829. Also available online via Hathi Trust.
  3. John Bunyan. The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that Which is to Come. Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream … with Copious Notes, by the Rev. J Newton, Dr. Hawker, and Others. Exeter [N.H.]:  J. J.Williams, 1810. NH Exeter 1810
  4. John Bunyan. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Versified, for the Entertainment and Instruction of Youth by George Burder. Hanover, N.H.: Moses Davis, 1807. DC Hist BX7233.F84 F6
  5. John Bunyan. The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that Which is to Come … with an Introduction by the Rev. H. R. Haweis; Embellished with over One Hundred and Twenty Designs done by Three Brothers, George Woolliscroft Rhead, Frederick Rhead, Louis Rhead. New York: The Century Company, 1898. Presses qD496bu. Also available online via Hathi Trust.

The story was simplified and adapted to reach wider audiences.  “Metamorphosis” editions, with folding flaps that reveal the Pilgrim’s progress, were simple ways to learn the moral tale.  It was also translated for missionary use, here into Hawaiian and again into Cantonese, complete with illustrations of the pilgrim with stereotypical Chinese features, costumes and settings.

  1. John Bunyan. Tian lu li Cheng: Tu Hua. Yang Cheng: Hui Shi Li Tang, 1871. Rare Book Collection. Purchased on the Benz Fund. Rare Book PR3330 .A738 1871 
  2. John Bunyan. Ka Hele Malihini Ana Mai Keia ao Aku a Hiki i Kela ao; he Olelonane i Hoohalikeia me he Moeuhane la. Na Ioane Buniana. Honolulu: Mea paipalapala a na misionari, 1842. Rare Book PR3330 .A75 1842. Also available online via Hathi Trust.
  3. John Bunyan. The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that Which is to Come. Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream [with Five Engravings by Alan Anderson]. New York: American Tract Society, [ca. 1830]. Illus A545bp
  4. John Bunyan. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress … with Illustrations by Charles Bennett; and a Preface by Charles Kingsley. London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1860. Sine Illus B46bun
  5. John Bunyan. The Pilgrim's Progress … Illustrated with 25 Drawings on Wood by George Cruikshank. London, New York: H. Frowde, 1903. Sine Illus C78pil. Also available online via Hathi Trust.
  6. John Bunyan. The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that Which is to Come … with One Hundred Illustrations by Frederick Barnard and Others, engraved by Dalziel Brothers. London: Strahan and Company Limited, 1880. Sine Illus B378pil. Also available online via Hathi Trust.
  7. John Bunyan. The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that Which is to Come. Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream … with Forty Illustrations, drawn by John Gilbert, and engraved by W.H. Whymper. London: J. Nisbet, [1860]. Sine Illus G54pil 
  8. John Bunyan. The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that Which is to Come …with Eight Illustrations in Colour by Gertrude Demain Hammond. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1910. Sine Illus H366pil
  9. John Bunyan. The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that Which is to Come. Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream ... Illustrated by William Strang. London: J. C. Nimmo, 1895. Sine Illus S766pil or Illus S897b
  10. John Bunyan. The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that Which is to Come ... [Illustrated by Edmund J. Sullivan]. London: George Newnes Ltd., 1901. Sine Illus S865pilg (2 parts)
  11. The Little Pilgrim's Progress. Philadelphia: Smith and Peck, 1845. Rare Book PR3330.A25 L5 1845
  12. John Bunyan. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, from this World to that Which is to Come. Exhibited in a Metamorphosis, or, a Transformation of Pictures. Third Edition. New-Haven: J.W. Barber, 1826. The Class of 1926 Memorial Collection. 1926 Coll B86b
  13. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, from this World to that Which is to Come. Exhibited in a Metamorphosis, or, a Transformation of Pictures … Designed and Published by J. W. Barber. Hartford: Printed by P.B. Goodsell, 1821. 1926 Coll B86b 1821

 

Case 2: Christian meets Uncle Wiggily

Book artist Angela Lorenz has recently created this meticulously researched adaptation of Bunyan’s classic: Life, Life, Eternal Life: Uncle Wiggily Meets The Pilgrim’s Progress (Presses L876loli).  Presented as a board game (the “binding” becomes the Pilgrim’s satchel), players draw cards and face various temptations and trials as they progress to the Black River and finally to the ladder to heaven.

Lorenz’s version fits into a long tradition of adapting Bunyan to reach varied audiences and teach its moral tale, as she points out in the conclusion to her instructions:

Why play this at all? Well, in doing so you can get the gist of the biggest best seller next to the Bible and martyrologies for the last 300 years, one of the few books found for two centuries in many American parlors. I thought it was largely forgotten, until I recently discovered it is still widely used as a protestant evangelical tool today, in coloring books and foreign translations in many lands near and far. Beyond showing what influence this book had, and what prejudices it promulgated for centuries, the game recreates leisure time of the past, which often included inter-active parlor games based on literature, with pseudo-moralistic messages.