John Milton was born in London in 1608, the son of a prosperous composer. A brilliant scholar from a young age, he studied at Cambridge and devoted himself to mastering languages — Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, French, and Spanish — until he could read the world's great works in their original tongues. He was a poet, a political thinker, and a fierce defender of freedom. When England was torn apart by civil war, Milton threw himself into the cause, writing powerful pamphlets in defense of liberty, free speech, and the right to divorce. He served as a government official under Oliver Cromwell, risking everything for his beliefs — and paying the price when the monarchy was restored. By 1652, the man who had spent his life in words had gone completely blind. But he did not stop. Dictating to his daughters and friends, he composed his masterpiece from memory and imagination alone — an epic so vast it would change literature forever. Paradise Lost was published in 1667. It was not a quiet success; it was a revolution. Milton took the oldest story ever told — the fall of man — and gave it a rebel so compelling that readers have never stopped arguing about him since. He died in 1674, poor and largely uncelebrated in his final years. But he left behind a poem that would outlive empires.
John Milton was born in London in 1608, the son of a prosperous composer. A brilliant scholar from a young age, he studied at Cambridge and devoted himself to mastering languages — Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, French, and Spanish — until he could read the world's great works in their original t...