Geoffrey Chaucer

Born around 1343 into a London family connected to the wine trade, Geoffrey Chaucer grew up close to both city life and the royal court. Over the course of his life he served as a courtier, diplomat, and civil servant, experiences that gave him a wide view of medieval society and later fed the rich variety of characters in his writing.

He is most famous for The Canterbury Tales, an unfinished collection of stories told by a group of pilgrims traveling to Canterbury. Written in Middle English, the work ranges from comic and earthy to thoughtful and moving, and it helped prove that English—not just Latin or French—could carry ambitious literature.

Chaucer also wrote works such as Troilus and Criseyde and was later buried in Westminster Abbey, in the area that became known as Poets’ Corner. He is often described as a founding figure in English poetry because his writing brought together storytelling, wit, and a remarkably human understanding of people.