Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel

Place: Alcalá De Henares

Born: 1547

Death: 1616

Biography:

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best known for his novel Don Quixote, a work considered as the first modern novel. The novel has been labelled by many well-known authors as the 'best book of all time' and the 'best and most central work in world literature'. Cervantes was born in Alcalá de Henares, Spain in 1547 and died in Madrid, Spain in 1616. Much of his life was spent in relative poverty and obscurity, which led to many of his early works being lost. Despite this, his influence and literary contribution are reflected by the fact that Spanish is often referred to as 'the language of Cervantes'.