Cervantes.

This is coolbert:

The great Spanish writer Miguel Cervantes did have a military career.

Fought at Lepanto. Was wounded in the hand [did not regain full use of the hand for the rest of his life]. Also fought in other engagements against the "Moors".

"Cervantes went to Rome in the service of Giulio Acquavita. In 1570, he became a soldier, and fought on board a vessel in the battle of Lepanto in 1571. He was shot through the left hand and never after had the entire use of it.

He recovered sufficiently to participate in the naval engagement against the Muslims of Navarino in October 7, 1572. He participated in the capture of Tunis on October 10, 1573 and in the unsuccessful expedition to the relief of La Goletta in the autumn of 1574."

Was also A SLAVE OF THE BARBARY PIRATES FOR FIVE YEARS. Was thought to be a person of some status [at that moment in his life he was not famous], and was finally ransomed for the price of three hundred gold ducats [I guess a princely sum at the time].

"He was held captive for five years, since his family could not afford the overpriced sum, undergoing great suffering, some of which seems to be reflected in the episode of the "Captive" in Don Quixote, and in scenes of the play, El trato de Argel. After four unsuccessful escape attempts, he was ransomed by the Trinitarians, and returned to his family in Madrid in 1580."

It is the most famous work of Cervantes, "Don Quixote", that David Ben Gurion had in mind when he learnt Spanish. Wanted to read the work in the ORIGINAL. Ben Gurion, felt, for whatever reason, that Don Quixote was an essential read for all those wished to understand and exercise statecraft!!

"Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion learned the Spanish language so that he could read it in the original, considering it a prerequisite to becoming an effective statesman."

"This is one reason it has been a favorite of statesmen ranging from the Philippines' José Rizal, to Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India and father of Indira Gandhi, to Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, who "laboriously learned Spanish" so he could read Don Quixote in the original. Ben Gurion tried to re-read it once a year, because he considered that all the secrets of statecraft were contained therein."

"the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky called it "the ultimate and most sublime word of human thinking"."

"In a survey conducted in 2002, some of the world's leading writers, representing nearly all continents, from Africa to Australia, Europe, Asia, and the Americas, selected Don Quixote as the world's best work of fiction. "If there is one novel you should read before you die, it is Don Quixote," said the Nigerian-born Ben Okri."

How this is so I am not clear about! Suffice to let it be that it is!

Also suffice to say I have never read Don Quixote!!

coolbert.