by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was born in 1547 in the university town of Alcalá de Henares, Spain, to a struggling barber-surgeon’s family. Unable to afford enrollment in the university, Cervantes acquired a different sort of education by joining the military. He served with distinction against the Turks in the battle of Lepanto (1571; in Greece), permanently losing the use of his left hand in the process. On the voyage home, he and his brother were captured by Barbary Coast pirates and imprisoned for five years in Algeria. After being ransomed, Cervantes returned to Spain to find the country in economic peril and his job prospects slim. He applied for posts in Spain’s overseas colonies but, unable to secure one, took a job as a tax collector; when his accounts failed to balance, the job landed him in the Royal Prison of...