Margery Kempe

(c. 1373 - c. 1438)

Margery Kempe was born to a merchant family in Norfolk in the 1370s. Little information exists regarding her early life; scholars debate still whether or not she herself was able to read and write. A Christian mystic, Kempe decided to record the story of her life and her relationship with her Christian faith, possibly through dictation. The Book of Margery Kempe is considered by some to be the first English-language autobiography to have appeared publicly.