ABSTRACT
Controversial mystic and author of the first extant autobiography in English. The Book of Margery Kempe is both a mystical treatise consisting of the author’s visions and conversations with Christ and a narrative of her life, including her conversion, pilgrimages, and arguments with church authorities. Kempe, who was illiterate, dictated her autobiography to two different scribes. The original manuscript has been lost, but a 15th-century copy was discovered in 1934.
