Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a 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 two-part novel Don Quixote, a work considered to be the first modern novel. Don Quixote 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". October 9, 1547 – April 22, 1616; died at 68. Alive at the same time as Michelangelo, René Descartes, Elizabeth I of England, Johannes Kepler, and John Calvin. Wiki link