born 0441; 1373
died 0441; 1440
English mystic.
She had 14 children before beginning a series of pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Rome, Germany, and Spain in 1414. Apparently illiterate, she dictated her autobiography, Book of Margery Kempe , describing her travels and her religious ecstasies in an unaffected style ( 0441; 143236). It is one of the earliest autobiographies in English literature.