Chanticleer and the Fox

Often referred to as the father of English poetry, Geoffrey Chaucer was a fourteenth-century philosopher, alchemist, astrologer, bureaucrat, diplomat, and author of many significant poems. Chaucer’s writing was influential in English literary tradition, as it introduced new rhyming schemes and helped develop the vernacular tradition–the use of everyday English–rather than the literary French and Latin, which were common in written works of the time. Chaucer’s best-known–and most imitated–works include The Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde, The Book of the Duchess, and The House of Fame.

Like Miss Rumphius, the late Barbara Cooney traveled the world, lived in a house by the sea in Maine, and, through her art, made the world more beautiful.