Thomas Malory, whose epic poem Le Morte d'Arthur is so well known that it has become the basis of all Arthurian legends, stories, and films ever since.

The book is much better known than its author, who is largely forgotten, though he probably died in 1471.

Le Morte d'Arthur was first published, without bearing Malory's name, by Thomas Caxton on July 31st 1485, and was one of the first books published in English.

Caxton edited the poem freely, adding pieces and taking out pieces, as he thought fit. The final work gives an epic unity to the whole range of English and French Arthurian romance of the previous five centuries in a popular form for the English reader.

Caxton claimed it was written because he himself believed that such lives and deeds deserved permanent record, and also because many gentlemen believed that 'King Arthur should be remembered among Englishmen before all other Christian kings.'

Sir Thomas Malory's compilation of some French and English Arthurian romances. The book contains some of Malory's own original material (the Gareth story) and retells the older stories in light of Malory's own views and interpretations.

Malory probably started work on Le Morte d'Arthur while he was in prison in the early 1450s and completed it by 1470. Originally Malory intended Le Morte Darthur to be the title of only the final book of his cycle; he calls the full work The hoole booke of kyng Arthur & of his noble knyghtes of the rounde table; Caxton may have misunderstood the author's intentions when naming the book. Many modern editions update the spelling and some of the pronouns from Malory's original Middle English, re-punctuate and re-paragraph, but otherwise leave the text as it was written.

The first printing of Malory's work was made by Caxton in 1485; it proved popular, and was reprinted, with some additions and changes, in 1498 and 1529 by Wynkyn de Worde who succeeded Caxton's press. Three more editions followed at intervals down to the time of the English Civil War: William Copland's (1557), Thomas East's (1585), and William Stansby's (1634), each of which manifested additional changes and errors (including the omission of an entire leaf). Thereafter the book went out of fashion until the time of the Romantic revival of interest in all things medieval; the year 1816 saw a new edition by Walker and Edwards, and another one by Wilks, both based on the 1634 Stansby edition. From Davison's 1817 edition (promoted by Robert Southey) on, Caxton's 1485 edition (or a mixture of Caxton and Stansby) was used as the basis for future editions, down to the time of the discovery of the Winchester Manuscript.
 

Malory's story begins with Merlin magically transforming Uther Pendragon so the king can enter the castle at Tintagel, seduce Igraine, and beget King Arthur. Elements such as the Sword in the Stone, which first appeared in Robert de Boron's Merlin (c. 1200 AD), the Round Table, the Grail Quest and the adultery of Lancelot and Guinevere are all present. Malory also adds the story of Tristram and Iseult, a tale more Romantic in its tone than any of the others he tells, and which prefigures the tragedy to come to Arthur himself.

Thomas Malory lived an extraordinary life of adventure himself. From the little information about Malory available, it seems that he inherited an estate at Newbold Revell in 1443 and, three years later, took part in the siege of Calais with a small detachment consisting of a single lancers and a pair of archers.

In 1450 he became Member  of Parliament or Warwickshire, and in that same year he tried to ambush and murder the Duke of Buckingham, but he also broke into Coombe Abbey, which he robbed, and insulted the abbot. He also may be responsible for forcing the wife of one Henry Smith; cattle rustling on a massive scale; and highway robbery. He served up to eight sentences of imprisonment for his misdemeanours, escaping twice.

Once, in July 1451, by swimming across the moat of Coleshill prison; and once more, in October 1454, when he made a daring armed breakout from Colchester Castle. In 1462 he fought for Edward IV against the Scots and the French, but soon went over to the Lancastrian side.

In 1468 the king excluded him from a general pardon, whereupon he appears to have been imprisoned in Newgate until his death three years later. But while in Newate, it seems that he wrote Le Morte D'Arthur.

He was buried in the nearby Friary Church of St. Francis beneath a marble tomb inscribed: "Dominus Thomas Mallare Valens Miles Obitt 14 Mar 1470 De Parochia Monkenkyrby in Comitatu Warwici".