Miguel Delibes Setién (17 October 1920 – 12 March 2010) was a Spanish novelist. From 1975 until his death, he was a member of the Royal Spanish Academy, where he occupied chair "e". He studied commerce and law and began his career as a columnist and later journalist at the El Norte de Castilla. He would later head this newspaper before gradually devoting himself exclusively to the novel.

As a connoisseur of the fauna and flora of his geographical region and someone passionate about hunting and the rural world, he could give form in his works to all matters relating to Castile and hunting from the perspective of an urban person who had not lost touch with that world. He was one of the leading figures of Spanish literature of after the Spanish Civil War, for which he was recognized through many awards. However, his influence extends even further, since several of his works have been adapted for the theater or have been made into movies, which won awards at competitions such as the Cannes Film Festival, and television shows. He was marked deeply by the death of his wife in 1974. In 1998 he was diagnosed with colon cancer, an illness from which he would never fully recover. As a result his literary career came almost entirely to a halt. He fell into apathy and became virtually isolated until his death in 2010.

Miguel Delibes was born in Valladolid on October 17, 1920 as the third of eight children from the marriage between María Setién and Adolfo Delibes. His father was born and died in the Cantabrian town Molledo, where Miguel spent many summers. The writer was named an adopted son of Valladolid in 2009. The name Delibes was of French origin and came from Toulouse. Miguel's grandfather was a brother of French composer Léo Delibes and had moved to Spain to participate in the construction of the railway in Cantabria. His father was a professor of law at the School of Business of Valladolid. Miguel attended the College of Our Lady of Lourdes in Valladolid, where he finished high school in 1936. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he enlisted in 1938 as a volunteer in the Navy of the nationalist forces. As a volunteer, he served on the cruiser Canarias, which operated in the Mallorcan region. In 1939, at the end of the war, he returned to his hometown and enrolled at the School of Commerce. After finishing his course, he started law studies. He further enrolled at the Escuela de Artes y Oficios (School of Arts and Crafts) of Valladolid. This helped to improve his artistic skills and to get in 1941 a contract as caricaturist of El Norte de Castilla, the leading newspaper of Valladolid and dean of the Spanish daily press.

From that moment the doors to journalism opened for the only 21 year old Delibes. He published his first newspaper article in El Norte de Castilla, entitled El deporte de la caza mayor (The sport of big game hunting) and obtained a professional journalist permit in 1943, following an intensive course in Madrid. The newspaper appointed him to the post of editor of the film criticism section while he continued to make caricatures. Two years later, he became professor of Business Law, teaching at the School of Commerce. On April 23, 1946 he married Ángeles de Castro, who later became one of his greatest literary inspirations. They honeymooned in Molledo, Cantabria.

After his marriage the literary career of Miguel Delibes really started to take off. It was the beginning of a three year period that marked his career: in 1947 he began writing his first play, La sombra del ciprés es alargada (The Cypress Casts a Long Shadow) and his son Miguel was born. Miguel would later become a famous biologist. In 1948, he received the Premio Nadal for La sombra del ciprés es alargada which marked the beginning of his emergence on the Spanish literary scene. Shortly after, his daughter Ángeles was born. She would also become a known biologist and researcher. 1949 saw the publication of a new book Aún es de día (It is still daytime), that was subject to censorship. As professor of history at the College of Commerce he also had to face Francisco Franco's censors when dealing in his classes with the victory of the "nationalists" in the Spanish Civil War (on whose side he himself had fought for three years as a volunteer). Half way through the year Germán, his third child was born. He would become professor of prehistory at the University of Valladolid.

In 1952 he was appointed deputy director of the newspaper El Norte de Castilla, so that his battles with the censors became increasingly direct and frequent. The writer entered a new phase in his life in which he would publish a new work virtually every year, namely: Mi idolatrado hijo Sisí (My adored son Sissi) (1953), La partida (The Party) (1954), Diario de un cazador (Diary of a hunter) (1955) - Premio Nacional de Narrativa (National Prize for Fiction) - Un novelista descubre América (A novelist discovers America) (1956), Siestas con viento sur (Siestas with southern wind) (1957) - Premio Fastenrath (Fastenrath Award) - Diario de un emigrante (Diary of an emigrant) (1958) and La hoja roja (The red leaf) (1959). This last novel was existentialist in content and deals with a photographer who recalls his life on the brink of his retirement. In 1956 his son Juan Delibes was born. He would become a biologist and fan of hunting and fishing like his father. In 1958 the writer was appointed director of El Norte de Castilla.

The 1960s represented the heyday of Delibes literary career. The period was marked by the birth of his sixth son, Adolfo (later a graduate in biology) and a visit by the writer to Germany, where he visited several universities. The literary period opened with the publication of Viejas historias de Castilla la Vieja (Old tales of Old Castile) (1960) and Por esos mundos (In these worlds) (1961). In 1962, Delibes published Las ratas (The rats), one of his masterpieces. It constructs a story from a series of autobiographical anecdotes which evoke the rural environment of a Castilian village that has disappeared. The book won the Premio de la Crítica (Critics Award for Castilian fiction). In the same year Camino, the last of his seven children, would be born. Camino later graduated in Philosophy and Letters. Also in that year, the film version of El camino, directed by Ana Mariscal, was shot. 1963 was a turbulent year: Delibes resigned on 8 June as director of El Norte de Castilla after several disagreements with Manuel Fraga, Minister of Information and Tourism. In 1964, he spent six months in the United States as a visiting professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature of the University of Maryland. After his return, he wrote and published Cinco horas con Mario (Five hours with Mario), which is considered his masterpiece. The novel is the monologue of a woman who holds a wake at her husband's body while she recounts the memories of her dead husband. Other books published upon his return from the US included USA y yo (The USA and I) and La milana. In the following years he visited Czechoslovakia and published Parábola del náufrago (literally: The parable of the shipwreck, translated into English as The hedge by Frances M. Lopez - Morillas). Later in the 1970s, he followed up with several books about hunting, an activity about which he was passionate, and stories. Subsequently he published Un año de mi vida (A year of my life), a personal diary.