Malory, << MAL uh ree, >> Sir Thomas (?-1471?), was the author of the book Le Morte Darthur. This title is French for The Death of Arthur. In Le Morte Darthur, Malory told the whole story of King Arthur of Britain and the careers of such knights of the Round Table as Lancelot, Gareth, and Tristan. The book provides the fullest version of the legends about Arthur and his court ever written in English.
Scholars disagree on the identity of the author of Le Morte Darthur. Records from the 1400’s show that several Englishmen named Thomas Malory lived at this time. A knight of Warwickshire, who was imprisoned for a series of crimes, is usually identified as the author.
Malory translated and adapted much of his work from earlier French and English writings about Arthur. He completed his work about 1470. William Caxton, the first English printer, published the first edition of the book in 1485. He made the title of Malory’s last section, Le Morte Darthur, stand for the entire book. A manuscript copy of Malory’s work was found at Winchester College in England in 1934. The most accurate and complete modern editions of Le Morte Darthur are based on the Winchester manuscript.
Malory’s book has influenced the work of many artists and writers. Such writers include the English poets Edmund Spenser and Lord Tennyson.
