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Romantic writer of modern literature: Who is Nicholas Sparks?

Most of us have watched The Notebook movie. The legendary love stories Noah wrote for every day he was separated from Allie might have brought you to tears and this movie may have been among your favorites.

To give another example, we felt a deep love story in our bones with what Landon did to make Jamie's wishes come true in the movie Distant Memories. But how many of us know Nicholas Sparks, the author of the books on which these screenplays are based?

In this article, we have compiled one of the famous names of today's literature world, Nicholas Sparks.

Nicholas Charles Sparks (born December 31, 1965) is an American romance novelist, screenwriter, and film producer. He has published twenty-three novels, all New York Times bestsellers, and two works of non-fiction, 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 which, along with 8 other books, have been adapted as feature films.

The author, whose full name is Nicholas Charles Sparks, was born on December 31, 1965, in Nebraska, USA; He lived here until he was eight. Due to his parent's divorce, he moved to California with his father. Sparks, a sporty and successful student, finished high school with first place and went to Indiana by accepting the University of Notre Dame, where he received a sports scholarship offer for athletics. When he started college, he also began writing his first novel. Here he studied business finance and graduated with high honors.

After graduation, he married Cathy Cote and they had five children from this marriage. Divorced in 2015, the author still lives in North Carolina, where he settled when he got married. After earning a lot of money as a writer, he donated around $900,000 to New Bern High School, where he lived, to have a new tartan runway built. Apart from that, he volunteered for high school and local athletics teams. At the same time, he started a creative writing program at the university he graduated from and made donations by financing scholarships and internships. He also continues to support future generations with his foundation bearing his name.

Sparks, who started writing at the suggestion of his mother, describes this situation as follows:

"My mother came to me and said, 'You're bored and you have to do something to change it.' Then he coined the sentence that would change my life: 'Write a book.' "I had never thought of that before. I read many books and loved it, but it never occurred to me to write. I was 19 and suddenly became a writer by accident."

He wrote his first novel, The Passing, which he never published during the summer break of his freshman year. A few years later, he wrote his second novel, The Royal Murders, which he never published.

After college, Sparks wanted to work with publishers to pursue writing but was turned down by all.

In 1990, he co-wrote a nonfiction book about Lakota beliefs with Billy Mills. This book has sold fifty thousand copies after it was published.

In 1994, in his spare time from work, he started to write The Notebook. After registering it, he sent it to publishing houses. As he was about to give up hope, luck smiled at him. Having discovered many NY Times Bestseller authors, Theresa Park found Sparks' novel among the trashy reviews and fell in love with it. The book, which went into print with an advance of 1 million dollars, entered the NY Times Bestseller list from the first week of its publication in 1996 and remained in its place for fifty-six weeks.

Known for The Notebook, all of the author's works entered the NY Times Bestseller list, and fifteen of them ranked first. Using his experiences as a source of inspiration, the author's eleven novels have also been adapted into movies.

Works of Nicholas Sparks