Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Alonzo Fernandez de Avellaneda (the guy who wrote the phony sequel to Don Quixote) wasn't the only dude to knock off Don Quixote in Cervantes's time. He's just the only one Cervantes chose to really go after. (Source)
Miguel de Cervantes actually thought about many of his ideas for Don Quixote while spending his time in jail.
When Cervantes wrote Don Quixote, many upper crust people read books written in Latin. But Cervantes wrote Don Quixote in Old Castilian Spanish, the language of the common people. (Source)