27 April, 1667: Blind, bitter and poor, Puritan poet John Milton (9 Dec.1608 – 8 Nov.1674) sold for ten pounds the copyright of Paradise Lost. The book influenced the English thought and language nearly as much as the King James Version and the plays of Shakespeare.

The theme of the epic appears in its opening lines: “Of man’s disobedience and the fruit / Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste / Brought death into the world, and all our woe, / With loss of Eden.”