Those who have formed their impression of the great Puritan, John Owen (1616-1683), from the massive Works of John Owen in their various editions may scarcely recognize the same man in this biography! The youthful John Owen was fond of such physical exercises as throwing the javelin and doing the long-jump (p. 5)! He was an enemy to the clerical title ‘Reverend’ (‘I have very little valued it’ p. 73), and he went to such extremes in avoiding clerical and academic dress that, according to the Laudian Oxford historian Anthony Wood, he went about in ‘powdered hair, snakebone bandstrings, lawn bands, a large set of ribbons pointed, Spanish leather boots with lawn tops, and his hat mostly cocked’ (p. 73).