Sir Thomas Malory

A 15th-century English writer, Thomas Malory is remembered almost entirely for Le Morte Darthur, the great prose retelling of the Arthurian legends. Printed by William Caxton in 1485, the book helped fix the stories of Arthur, Lancelot, Guinevere, and the Round Table in the form many readers now recognize.

Details of Malory’s life are still debated, and scholars have long argued over exactly which Thomas Malory wrote the book. He is generally associated with the 1400s and is often thought to have died in 1471. What seems clear is that his work drew together French and English Arthurian material into a single sweeping narrative that moves from idealism and adventure to jealousy, civil war, and collapse.

That blend of action, courtly drama, and sorrow is a big reason the book has lasted. Malory’s version became a major source for later Arthurian writers and remains one of the most influential medieval works in English prose.