Margery Kempe
Item
Author
Margery Kempe
Location
King's Lynn, England
Dates
1373–1438
Biography
Margery Kempe was an English Christian mystic, who wrote, through dictation to a scribe, the Book of Margery Kempe, a work considered by some to be the first autobiography in the English language. Her book chronicles her domestic tribulations, her extensive pilgrimages to holy sites in Europe and the Holy Land, as well as her mystical conversations with God. She is honoured in the Anglican Communion but was never made a Roman Catholic saint.
Works
The Book of Margery Kempe
Languages
Middle English
Genres
Devotional, Autobiography
Editions and Translations
Meech, Sanford Brown, ed. The Book of Margery Kempe. EETS o.s. 212. New York: Oxford University Press, 1940, rpt. 1961.
Archival Holdings
The Book of Margery Kempe: Add MS 61823, British Library, London.
