Miguel de Cervantes
(1547–1616)
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Spain's greatest writer, struggled with poverty all his life. He died, still impoverished, around the time of the death of his great (and much more prosperous) English contemporary, William Shakespeare.
Cervantes' own life was a tale of poverty, woe, and imprisonment. Born the son of a wandering apothecary (pharmacist) near Madrid, Cervantes was probably not formally educated, but he read widely. Because prospects in civilian life seemed dim, Cervantes enlisted in the army. He fought bravely in the naval battle of Lepanto but was so badly wounded that his left hand was crippled for the rest of his life, earning him the nickname El manco de Lepanto—"the crippled man of Lepanto."
Seeking military promotion, Cervantes took a sea voyage to a new posting, accompanied by his brother. But his hopes for advancement were cruelly mocked when he and his brother were captured at sea by pirates and held as slaves in Algeria. During the five years he was captive, Cervantes became known among the prisoners for his bravery in leading several escape attempts. He was finally freed when his family borrowed money to pay the ransom. Over the next few years, Cervantes married, worked as a tax collector, and wrote stories, plays, and poems, but he was never financially secure. At forty, he was thrown into prison, largely because of the debts his family had taken on in order to ransom him from the pirates.
According to legend, it was while he was in prison that Cervantes conceived the story of Don Quijote, a poor, aging landowner whose mind becomes unhinged from reading too many romantic tales of chivalry. As he teeters on the edge of insanity, Quijote becomes convinced that he also is a knight-errant (a wandering knight who braves dangers to do good deeds), even though knighthood's flower withered years ago.
The History of That Ingenious Gentleman Don Quijote de La Mancha took the form of a parody, or humorous imitation, of the old knightly romances. Published when Cervantes was fifty-eight, Part I of the book caused an immediate sensation. The first edition sold out, and pirated, or illegally printed, copies began to appear everywhere. Six editions were printed the first year; within ten years, the book had been translated into English and French. Soon everyone in Europe was laughing at the droll adventures of the ridiculous but touching Don Quijote. Someone even tried to capitalize on Cervantes' success with a bogus sequel. When Cervantes came out with his own Part II in 1615, a year before he died, the sequel pleased readers hungry for more of the addled old knight's adventures. The second installment of Don Quijote's adventures is widely regarded as even better than the first.
By the end of his life, Cervantes was famous, but he was still poor. Until the nineteenth century, authors were at the mercy of publishers, and so it was his publisher and not Cervantes who grew wealthy from Don Quijote's popularity. Cervantes died in poverty on April 22, 1616. To his family, he left only a little money and many debts. To the world, he left a comic masterpiece that earned the wounded man of Lepanto another and more enduring title: "Father of the Modern Novel."
