History’s Great Writers — Miguel de Cervantes: The Man Behind Don Quixote
A keen eye for the absurdities of life and a deep empathy for human frailties.
Miguel de Cervantes, the Spanish writer who gave us Don Quixote, lived a life as colorful and adventurous as his most famous character.
Born in 1547 in Alcalá de Henares, a small town near Madrid, Cervantes became one of the most celebrated authors in world literature.
Cervantes’ early years were marked by constant moving. His father, a barber-surgeon, struggled to make ends meet, forcing the family to relocate frequently. This nomadic lifestyle exposed young Miguel to various parts of Spain and different walks of life, experiences that would later inform his writing.
As a young man, Cervantes left Spain for Italy. Some say he fled the law after wounding a man in a duel. In Italy, he joined the Spanish military and fought in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. This naval battle against the Ottoman Empire left Cervantes with a permanent injury to his left hand, earning him the nickname “the one-handed man of Lepanto.”
