English 3
Mr. Schmidt
March 11
Nicholas Sparks: The Lucky One
Nicholas Sparks was born on December 31, 1965 in Omaha, Nebraska. As a child his family would move around a lot due to his father working on completing his graduate work. His family was financially unstable during his childhood also (Bio.com). In high school he attended Bella Vista High School in Fair Oaks, California and was nominated valedictorian when he graduated. Sparks was accepted into the University of Notre Dame on a scholarship for track and field (Walters). While at Notre Dame, Sparks met his future wife Catherine Cote (Bio.com). Sparks also held a record for a relay race from his freshmen year in college (Walters). Sparks had to give up track and field that summer because of Achilles tendonitis (Walters). During the summer though, Sparks wrote his first book titled The Passing, but was never published (Famous Authors). After writing his first novel, Sparks went into pharmaceutical sales and was about to give up writing all together (Bio.com). He decided that he would write three more books and if none of them were published he would quit. In the beginning of June 1994, Sparks began writing the Notebook, which is his most known book to date. When he finished in 1995, Sparks was discovered by literary agent Theresa Parks and was offered a one million dollar movie rights contract (Famous Authors). A few months later, Sparks’ father died in a car accident at the age of 54. The death of his father, while devastating to him, inspired Sparks to write even more (Bio.com). To help him cope with the tragedy, Sparks writes his next book Message in a Bottle.
Retiring from his sales job in 1997, Sparks began focusing more on his writing career. In 2000 Sparks’ sister died from a brain tumor leaving Sparks and his brother, Michael, the only surviving members of their family. Sparks decides to write the book Three weeks with my brother, with Michael and dedicate the book to their