# Nicholas Sparks

Nicholas Charles Sparks (born December 31, 1965) is an American novelist, screenwriter, and film producer. He has published twenty-three novels, all New York Times bestsellers, and two works of nonfiction, with over 115 million copies sold worldwide in more than 50 languages. Among his works are The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, and Message in a Bottle all of which, along with eight other books, have been adapted as feature films.
Sparks lives in North Carolina, where many of his novels are set.

## Early life and education

Nicholas Sparks was born on December 31, 1965, in Omaha, Nebraska. His father, Patrick Michael Sparks, was a business professor and his mother, Jill Emma Marie Sparks (née Thoene), was a homemaker and an optometrist's assistant. Sparks is of German, Czech, English, and Irish ancestry. He was the middle of three children, with an older brother, Michael Earl "Micah" Sparks (born 1964), and a younger sister, Danielle "Dana" Sparks Lewis (1966–2000), who died at the age of 33 from a brain tumor, an event that inspired his novel A Walk to Remember. As a child, Sparks lived in Watertown, Minnesota; Inglewood, California; Playa Del Rey, California; and Grand Island, Nebraska, before the family settled in Fair Oaks, California in 1974.
In 1984, Sparks graduated valedictorian of Bella Vista High School. He began writing while attending the University of Notre Dame on a track and field scholarship, majoring in business finance and graduating magna cum laude. Sparks wrote his first, never published, novel, The Passing in 1985 and a second unpublished novel called The Royal Murders in 1989. He married Cathy Cote in 1989 and moved to New Bern, North Carolina.

## Literary career

Sparks' first published book was Wokini: A Lakota Journey to Happiness and Self-Understanding, a nonfiction book co-written by Billy Mills about Lakota spiritual beliefs and practices, published by Feather Publishing. The book sold 50,000 copies in its first year after release.
In 1995, literary agent Theresa Park secured a $1 million advance for The Notebook from Time Warner Book Group, the book that became Spark's breakthrough novel. Published in October 1996, the novel made The New York Times bestseller list in its first week of release and eventually spent fifty-six weeks there.
In 1998, after the publication of The Notebook, Sparks wrote Message in a Bottle which, in 1999, became the first of his novels to be adapted for film in 1999. In total, eleven of his novels have been adapted as 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), Safe Haven (2013), The Best of Me (2014), The Longest Ride (2015), and The Choice (2016). He has also sold the screenplay adaptations of True Believer and At First Sight.
Including The Notebook, fifteen of Sparks's novels have been No. 1 New York Times Best Sellers, and all of his novels have been both New York Times and international bestsellers. Sparks has also often been listed on Forbes annual highest-paid authors lists.
In September 2020, Sparks published his twenty-first novel The Return and followed that up with The Wish in 2021 and Dreamland in 2022, each of which were optioned as films.

## Personal life

Sparks lives in New Bern, North Carolina. He has three sons and twin daughters. In 2015, he divorced Cathy Cote, his wife of 25 years.

### Philanthropy

In 2008, Sparks donated nearly $900,000 for a new, all-weather tartan track to New Bern High School, where he has also volunteered to coach. The same year, he also donated "close to $10 million" to start a private school, The Epiphany School of Global Studies. Sparks has also funded scholarships, internships, and annual fellowships at the University of Notre Dame Creative Writing Program. In 2012, he founded The Nicholas Sparks Foundation, a nonprofit that funds global education experiences for students, which has donated more than $15 million to charities, scholarship programs, and other projects.