William Langland

William Langland (ca. 1332 - ca. 1400) is generally accepted to be the author of Piers Plowman, an epic poem thought by many to be one of medieval literature's best examples of the use of allegory and alliteration, and one of the first great works of English literature.

Little is known of Langland. He is thought to have been born in Ledbury, England and to have attended school at Great Malvern Priory.

Essentially the only other thing known of Langland is that he is responsible for writing Piers Plowman (the work's full title is The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman). While some scholars feel the poem is a composite of several different authors' verses, most attribute at least the earliest two sections of the poem's text, which date to 1362 and 1377 respectively, to Langland (the authorship of the third fragment, written in the mid-1390s, is disputed). It is not known when or where Langland died.