John Milton

English poet and thinker John Milton worked for the Commonwealth of England's Council of State and later Oliver Cromwell as a civil official. His epic poem Paradise Lost, which he penned during a period of religious and political upheaval, is what made him most famous (1667). Paradise Lost, a book of blank poetry, is regarded as one of the best pieces of literature ever produced.

Within his lifetime, he became an internationally renowned author who wrote in English, Latin, and Italian. His famous Areopagitica (1644), which denounced pre-publication censorship, is one of history's most significant and passionate defenses of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. He was the first modern writer to use unrhymed verse outside of the theater or translations, and his quest for independence was reflected in his use of language. He also contributed new words to the English language.

Although reviews have varied over the years since his passing, William Hayley's 1796 biography referred to him as the "greatest English novelist" and he is still widely considered as "one of the preeminent writers in the English language." Although he (a Tory) called Milton's politics those of a "acrimonious and surly republican," Samuel Johnson commended Paradise Lost as "a poem which... with respect to design may claim the first rank, and with respect to performance, the second, among the works of the human mind." He was admired by poets including Thomas Hardy, William Wordsworth, and William Blake.