Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Although the printed version of Le Morte D'Arthur appeared in 1485, all written manuscript versions were lost for hundreds of years. They weren't rediscovered until the Winchester manuscript was unearthed in 1934 during the cataloguing of the Winchester College library. (Source.)
Most scholars agree that Sir Thomas Malory was a country gentleman who, for unknown reasons, became a criminal later in life, staging highway robberies and monastery lootings. If this is the case, Malory wrote Le Morte D'Arthur while serving his second prison sentence. Guess he had a lot of time to think. (Source.)