Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547–1616) was a Spanish novelist, playwright and poet, the author of Don Quixote. Born at Alcalá de Henares, the son of a barber-surgeon, he fought at the battle of Lepanto in 1571, where he lost the use of his left hand, was captured by Barbary pirates on the way home and spent five years as a slave in Algiers before his family ransomed him. He then worked as a purchasing agent for the Armada and a tax collector, and published the first part of Don Quixote at fifty-seven. The Exemplary Novels and the second part of Don Quixote followed.