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Camryn Gleason

Adv. English

25 April 2017

Nicholas Sparks Biography

Nicholas Sparks is a best-selling novelist in the American culture today. A few of his

well-known novels include: The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, Message in a Bottle, The Best

of Me, and The Longest Ride. After a long journey with business and trying to find out where his

life was taking him, he had at least 11 novels turned into movies. Sparks generally writes about

the power of love, and a few of his novels were indirectly based off stories throughout his life.

He was born on December 31, 1965 in Omaha, Nebraska to a relatively poor family. He

has two siblings, and his family traveled a lot for his job, resulting in Nicholas moving schools

frequently. Fair Oaks, California is where the Sparks family found their final home. That is

where he graduated from high school as Valedictorian in 1984. College brought him to Indiana,

where he attended The University of Notre Dame on a track scholarship. Today, Nicholass relay

team still holds the school record. Unfortunately he acquired an Achilles tendon injury and had to

quit running (Biography.com). This is when he began focusing on a career major such a business.

He graduated from Notre Dame in 1988 and met a lady who soon became his wife. Her name is

Catherine Cote. They both moved to Sacramento, CA, where he found a job manufacturing

orthopedic goods. This job was difficult and not very profitable, but he worked diligently and

often to make ends meet for his family of five kids. All throughout the hard times in his life, he

continued to write novels, two of which were unpublished.

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1994 was the year Sparks published his first book: Wokini: A Lakota Journey to

Happiness and Self-Understanding alongside his partner Billy Mays (Biography.com). After this,

Nicholas gave himself one last chance to make it as a writer. The plan was to write three more

novels, and if nothing got published, he would move on to another job (Biography.com). In 1995,

The Notebook was published making a no-name business man turn into a famous writer with a $1

million dollar movie rights contract.

Tragedy struck Nicholas when his father was killed in an accident at age 54 after his

mother was killed at age 47 (biography.com). The grieving author turned his sorrows into a novel

called Message in a Bottle which he sold to Hollywood Studios and later became a movie. The

following years brought many creative ideas to Nicholas as he continued to write love novels and

sale pharmaceuticals. Some of his best-selling books are A Walk to Remember, The Longest Ride,

The Last Song, Dear John, and of course The Notebook (Media.bookhub.com). He has written

many other marvelous, best-selling books not mentioned above.

Beyond writing best-selling novels, Nicholas dedicated himself to philanthropic efforts,

including the Nicholas Sparks Foundation which is a non-profit organization that improves

cultural understanding through education (Biography.com). He also kept his ties with his former

passion: track and field. He is on the USA Track and Field Board of Directors, and he coaches

for his sons track team.

Its easy to conclude that Nicholas Sparks wasnt handed his wealthy life. He grew up

poor and had his fair share of painful experiences. Nicholas is a prestigious scholar who never

gave up on his passion to write and always made sure to provide for his family. Nicholas is well
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known for his interesting, best-selling, motion picture, love novels, and without his books,

people would be deprived of their favorite sad, romantic love stories.

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Works Cited

"Nicholas Sparks." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 04 May 2016. Web. 26 Apr.

2017.

"The 10 Best Nicholas Sparks Books, Ranked." BookBub Blog. N.p., 07 Oct. 2015. Web. 26 Apr.

2017.