Nicholas Charles Sparks is a well-known American novelist and screenwriter, author of world bestsellers. He writes romantic stories where the main characters usually don't experience the typical happy ending. The themes of his novels are connected with Christianity, love, fate, tragedy and human feelings. He has published 17 novels, 8 of them have been adapted to films. His novels have been translated into 45 languages.
Background
Ethnicity:
Nicholas Sparks is of German, Czech, English and Irish ancestry.
Nicholas Charles Sparks was born on December 31, 1965, in Omaha, Nebraska. He was the middle of three children. Sparks was raised Roman Catholic. He and his wife are devout Catholics and are raising their children in the Catholic faith.
Education
Nicholas spent the early part of his childhood moving around with his family as his father finished up his graduate work. They lived in Minnesota, then Los Angeles, later Grand Island, Nebraska, and finally in 1974 his family settled in Fair Oaks, California, and remained there through Nicholas's high school days. Nicholas went on to graduate from high school there in 1984, becoming the class valedictorian. "Because my father was a student until I was 9 years old and my mother didn't work, we weren't exactly living the high life when I was little. I grew up on powdered milk and ate tons of potatoes, though to be honest, I never noticed how poor we really were until I was old enough to take an honest appraisal of things. Even then, it didn't matter. For the most part, I had a wonderful childhood and wouldn't change a thing".
College brought him to Indiana and the University of Notre Dame, which had offered the athletic Sparks a full track scholarship. In 1985, during his freshman year, Sparks was part of a relay team that set a school track record for the 4 x 800 relay that still stands. But the season did not end on a good note for the future author: An Achilles tendon injury slowed things down for Sparks, and forced him to spend the summer recuperating. Sparks majored in business finance and graduated with honors in 1988. He also met his future wife that year, Cathy Cote from New Hampshire, while they were both on spring break.
Career
While still in school in 1985, Sparks penned his first (never published) novel "The Passing" while home for the summer between freshman and sophomore years at Notre Dame. He wrote another novel in 1989, also unpublished, "The Royal Murders".
After college, Sparks sought work with publishers or to attend law school, but was rejected in both attempts. He then spent the next three years trying other careers, including real estate appraisal, waiting tables, selling dental products by phone and starting his own manufacturing business.
In 1990, Sparks co-wrote with Billy Miles Wokini: "A Lakota Journey to Happiness and Self-Understanding". The book was published by Feather Publishing, Random House, and Hay House. Sales for this book approximated 50,000 copies in its first year after release.
In 1992, Sparks began selling pharmaceuticals and in 1993 was transferred to Washington, DC. It was there that he wrote another novel in his spare time, "The Notebook". Two years later, he was discovered by literary agent Theresa Park, who picked The Notebook out of her agency's slush pile, liked it, and offered to represent him. In October 1995, Park secured a $1 million advance for "The Notebook" from Time Warner Book Group. The novel was published in October 1996 and made the New York Times best-seller list in its first week of release.
With the success of his first novel, he moved to New Bern, NC. After his first publishing success, he wrote several international bestsellers. Eight of his novels have been made into films: "Message in a Bottle" (1999), "A Walk to Remember" (2002), "The Notebook" (2004), "Nights in Rodanthe" (2008), "Dear John" (2010), "The Last Song" (2010), "The Lucky One" (2012), and "Safe Haven"(2013).
On June 17, 2011, Sparks stated on his official website that Warner Bros. had bought the movie rights to his novel "The Best of Me", published on October 11, 2011.
Sparks is scheduled to release his 18th novel, "The Longest Ride", on September 24, 2013. On his official website he announced that the film adaptation rights have already been acquired and the film is set to be released on February 13, 2015.
Views
Quotations:
Quotations of Nicholas Sparks:
- "The greater the love, the greater the tragedy when it is over".
- "It has to get ugly before it gets pretty".
- "Over time, quality work will lead to an audience for your work".
- "You are going to come across people in your life who will say all the right words at all the right times. But in the end, it's always their actions you should judge them by. It's actions, not words, that matter".
- "Just when you think it can't get any worse, it can. And just when you think it can't get any better, it can".