http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400), known as the
Father of English literature, is widely considered the
greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first
poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster
Abbey. While he achieved fame during his lifetime as an
author, philosopher, alchemist and astronomer, composing a
scientific treatise on the astrolabe for his ten year-old
son Lewis, Chaucer also maintained an active career in the
civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Among
his many works, which include The Book of the Duchess, the
House of Fame, the Legend of Good Women and Troilus and
Criseyde, he is best loved today for The Canterbury Tales.
Chaucer is a crucial figure in developing the legitimacy of
the vernacular, Middle English, at a time when the dominant
literary languages in England were French and Latin.