Credited with composing the first extant autobiography in English, Kempe was a selfproclaimed mystic who dictated an account of her spiritual experiences to two scribes in The Book of Margery Kempe (c. 1436). This work has been critically evaluated as an autobiography and as an example of medieval mystic literature.

Biographical Information

The Book of Margery Kempe offers the only information available about Kempe's life. The work reveals that Kempe was born in King's Lynn (now known as Lynn), an important economic center in Norfolk, and that her father, John Brunham, served as mayor of the town. At age twenty, Margery wed John Kempe, a burgess of Lynn. Following the birth of the first of their fourteen children, Kempe fell ill and for eight months claimed to suffer from terrifying visions. Her cure, she asserted, came in the form of a vision of Christ. Increasingly drawn toward a religious...