Nicholas Sparks: Biography

Nicholas Sparks was born in 1965 in Omaha, Nebraska. His father, Patrick Michael (Mike), was a graduate student for much of Nicholas’ early life, so the family lived across many college towns. They finally settled in Fair Oaks, California, when Nicholas was eight.

Sparks excelled in high school, and accepted a full athletic scholarship to Notre Dame. There, he set a school record as part of a relay team. However, soon he sustained a tendon injury and needed time to recover. During this time Sparks wrote his first novel, The Passing, which was never published. He graduated from Notre Dame in 1988 with a degree in finance and married his wife, Cathy, in 1989. This was also the year his mother passed away at the age of 47 from a horseback riding accident.

At the age of 28, Sparks made another effort at writing. To that end, he spent the second half of 1994 writing a novel he called The Notebook. The novel was hugely successful, and remained on The New York Times paperback bestseller lists for 55 weeks. It has been translated into 45 languages. Each of Nicholas’s novels has ranked as an international bestseller. Many of his books have been adapted into films, with A Walk to Remember releasing in 2002.