Miguel de Cervantes

Spanish, 1547–1616

Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright whose Don Quixote is widely regarded as the first modern novel and one of the greatest works in world literature. The story of an aging gentleman who loses his sanity reading chivalric romances and sets out as a knight-errant is both a hilarious comedy and a profound meditation on idealism, reality, and the power of storytelling. Cervantes led an adventurous life as a soldier, captive, and tax collector before achieving literary fame.