Chaucer's Fame: Entrepreneurial Skills Seen in the Life of Geoffrey ChaucerChaucer is not an unknown literary author who is only known to a dozen people in the English domain. Besides Shakespeare, Chaucer is probably one of, if not the best known contributors to English literature. His name is instantly recognizable, and many high school students learned of him through the often painful reading of his most famous work, The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer's work is an extremely important text in terms of the evolution of the English language; The Canterbury Tales distinguished itself from other literary works of the time by being one of the first literary works to be written in English rather than French, and its extreme popularity stimulated the creation of even more English literature, allowing the language to find its place. prominence and evolve into the English we know today (“Chaucer”; Kemmer). Today it is the most prominent example of works in Middle English and is studied not only for its literary value, but also as evidence of what the language was like at the time. The importance of The Canterbury Tales and Chaucer is extreme, and the author rose to fame during his lifetime and long after, largely due to his ability to make wise decisions, take risks, learn how to learn as a professional and transfer knowledge, skills that people today can still use to succeed. Chaucer's life was well documented for someone of the time, and the wise decisions made early in his life allowed him to rise to important positions at a relatively young age. Born in 1343 to a father who was a wine merchant, it seems that Chaucer's family belonged to an upper class and very prosperous one (Polland). With his family...... middle of paper ......iron knowledge that made the story enduringly popular and an important literary work that is read to this day. The skills that Chaucer possessed can be used by anyone past and present to succeed, and are in fact necessary to thrive in any discipline in which one plans to work. Works Cited “Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales.” Learn English: timeline. The British Library Board, nd Web. April 27, 2014. .Kemmer, Suzanne. “Chronology: History of English.” Timeline: History of English. Rice University, September 16, 2013. Web. April 25, 2014. .Pollard, AW. “The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer.” Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature. Anniina Jokinen, September 3, 2006. Web. April 25. 2014. .