Miguel de Cervantes

An adventurer with a soldier’s heart and a storyteller’s talent, he lived a life full of twists and turns: as a veteran of the Battle of Lepanto, he was captured by pirates and spent five years imprisoned in Algiers. After returning, he made a living as best he could and often struggled with debt. World fame came to him through his novel about Don Quixote, whose humor and irony fundamentally transformed European literature.