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Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) was a Spanish novelist, playwright, and poet, the creator of Don Quixote, the most famous figure in Spanish literature. Although Cervantes' reputation rests almost entirely on his portrait of Don Quixote, his literary production was considerable. Cervantes was born in Alcal? de Henares, a town near Madrid, into a family of the minor nobility. His father was a doctor and much of his childhood Cervantes spent moving from town to town while his father sought work. He studied in Madrid (1568-69), where his teacher was the humanist Juan L?pez de Hoyos. In 1570 he became a soldier and took part in the sea battle at Lepanto (1571), during which he received a wound that permanently maimed his left hand. In 1575 he set out with his brother Rodrigo on the galley El Sol for Spain. The ship was captured by the Turks and the brothers were taken to Algiers as slaves. Cervantes spent five years as a slave until his family could raise enough money to pay his ransom. Cervantes was released in 1580, and after the return to Madrid he held several temporary administrative posts Cervantes started his literary career in Andalusia in 1580. His first major work was the Galatea (1588), a pastoral romance. It received little contemporary notice and Cervantes never wrote the continuation of it, which he repeatedly promised. In his play El Trato De Argel, printed in 1784, he dealt with the life of Christian slaves in Algiers. Aside from his plays, his most ambitious work in verse was Viaje Del Parnaso (1614). Tradition maintains, that he wrote Don Quixote in prison at Argamasilla in La Mancha. Cervantes' idea was to give a picture of real life and manners and to express himself in clear language. The reading public acclaimed the intrusion of everyday speech into a literary context. The author stayed poor until 1605, when the first part of Don Quixote appeared. Although it did not make Cervantes rich, it brought him international appreciation as a man of letters. Cervantes also wrote many plays, only two of which have survived, short novels, and the second part of Don Quixote (1615). Between the years 1596 and 1600 he lived primarily in Seville. In 1606 Cervantes settled permanently in Madrid, where he remained the rest of his life. He died on April 23, 1616.
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