The Longest Ride

they do in branding and corporate partnerships; it’s been an amazing experience so far, and I look forward to all that will happen in the future.
    My thanks also go to Mitch Stoller for all of his early contributions to the Nicholas Sparks Foundation, and to Jenna Dueck , the most recent addition to the foundation team, who I know will bring invaluable expertise and energy to our efforts in support of education.
    I also want to thank Saul Benjamin , the Headmaster at The Epiphany School of Global Studies, a school that my wife and I founded in 2006. There’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll take the school to new heights as it moves toward the future. Of course, he couldn’t do that without the help of David Wang , the Assistant Headmaster, and I’d like to take a moment to thank David as well.
    I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank Jason Richman and Pete Knapp , neither of whom work directly for me but nonetheless find themselves working on my behalf anyway. Thank you both for all you do.
    Rachel Bressler and Alex Greene also deserve my thanks for helping to keep the wheels turning smoothly when it comes to the Novel Learning Series and all things contract related, which can be a never-ending task.
    Micah Sparks , my brother, also deserves my heartfelt thanks not only for being the best brother a guy can have, but for all the effort, hard work, and vision he has brought to the Novel Learning Series.
    Emily Griffin , Sara Weiss , and Sonya Cheuse at Grand Central also deserve my thanks for all they do. Emily helps to guide a project near and dear to my heart, Sara handles an amazing workload at GCP on my behalf, while Sonya is a fantastic publicist in charge of my book tours.
    Thanks also to Tracey Lorentzen , the Director of the New Bern office of my foundation, and to Tia Scott for all things assistant related. She keeps my life running smoothly, which is no easy matter. Finally, many thanks to Jeannie Armentrout for all she does at the house.
    I must also thank Andrew Sommers , who does so much for me in yet another complex and critically important area of my life.
    Pam Pope and Oscara Stevick , my accountants, are wonderful at what they do, and I’m thankful to consider them part of my team.
    Courtenay Valenti and Greg Silverman at Warner Bros. feel like family to me after all these years, and I hope to work with both of you again.
    Ryan Kavanaugh , Tucker Tooley , Robbie Brenner , and Terry Curtin at Relativity deserve my thanks for the terrific work they did on Safe Haven , and I’m looking forward to working with all of you very soon! We make a wonderful team.
    Many thanks to Elizabeth Gabler and Erin Siminoff at Fox 2000 for agreeing to make the film version of The Longest Ride . I’m excited to be working with both of you.
    David Buchalter , who helps to arrange all my speeches, also deserves my thanks. I appreciate all you do.
    Todd and Kari Wagner also deserve my thanks for what they did – I trust they know what I’m talking about.
    And finally, thanks to friends new and old who’ve added much joy and laughter to my life, including Drew and Brittany Brees , Jennifer Romanello , Chelsea Kane , Gretchen Rossi , Slade Smiley , Josh Duhamel , and Julianne Hough .

My name is Ira Levinson. I’m a southerner and a Jew, and equally proud to have been called both at one time or another. I’m also an old man. I was born in 1920, the year that alcohol was outlawed and women were given the right to vote, and I often wondered if that was the reason my life turned out the way it did. I’ve never been a drinker, after all, and the woman I married stood in line to cast a ballot for Roosevelt as soon as she reached the appropriate age, so it would be easy to imagine that the year of my birth somehow ordained it all.

My father would have scoffed at the notion. He was a man who believed in rules. “Ira,” he would say to me when I was young and working with him in the haberdashery, “let me tell you something you should never do,” and then he would tell me. His Rules for Life , he called them, and I grew up hearing my father’s rules on just about everything. Some of what he told me was moral in nature, rooted in the teachings of the Talmud; and they were probably the same things most parents said to their children. I was told that I should never lie or cheat or steal, for instance, but my father – a sometimes Jew, he called himself back then – was far more likely to focus on the practical. Never go