Nicholas Sparks: An American Classic

Nicholas Sparks, an American author, writes love stories. His novel, The Notebook, was nominated for book of the year in 1997. Nicholas Sparks’ novels are translated into over thirty-five languages. He did not always dream of being a writer. Nicholas Sparks grew up in several different places as a child in a poor but educationally rich family and is now a best selling love novelist.

Growing up in a family that focused on education, Nicholas Sparks would eventually graduate at the top of his class. He was born on December 31,1965 in Nebraska. His parents were Patrick Sparks, who was a college professor, and his mother was Jill Sparks, who was a homemaker. He was the second child of three, one older brother and a younger sister. As a child he moved around quite a bit. He lived in Minnesota; then Los Angeles, California; and Grand Island, Nebraska; then finally at age eight settling in Fair Oaks, California. His family moved around while his father finished up his graduate work. He did not realize how poor his family was until he could take an honest look of things, but that did not concern him because he had a wonderful childhood and would not want to change a thing. When he went off to college in Indiana, he attended Notre Dame and was offered him a full track scholarship. While running on the track team his freshman year he set a school record that still stands today, unfortunately the season did not end well for Nicholas, with an Achilles tendon injury. (biography.com) During his time off and recovering his mother encouraged him to write a book to make good use of his time. He wrote a book in seven weeks called, A Work of Horror, even though it was never published it opened his eyes to what he enjoyed doing, writing. ...

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3. "Nicholas Sparks." Newsmakers. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 8 Jan. 2012.

4. “ABout Nicholas Sparks” 2002-2011 Willow Holdings, Inc.

8 January 2012

5. “What the Critics Say About Nicholas Sparks” Creighton University