Christian’s Children: The Influence of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress on American Children’s Literature

This in-depth study of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress focuses especially on the American reception of the book and on American retellings of it for children from its original publication through the twentieth century. Of special interest are the chapters dealing with Bunyan’s book as it appears in nine individual American works for children, spanning the 19th and 20th centuries, including Little Women, Huckleberry Finn, The Wizard of Oz, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. The book also includes extensive bibliographic chapters on American editions of Bunyan’s book and on children’s editions, including picturebooks, textbooks, and toybooks.