In his early life, author Louis Sachar moved around several times while pursuing his education through college. Born in New York in the mid 1950s, he moved to California with his family during grade school before spending time in Ohio and California for college (Sachar). These travels afforded him a wide range of experiences and source material for his later works. Additionally, during this time Sachar became interested in a range of authors such as Salinger, Vonnegut, E. B. White, and Margaret Atwood (Sachar). Such an interest perhaps influenced his on writing endeavors as well as decision to work at an elementary school while in college. Later on, he took odd jobs after college before eventually practicing law until the sales of his books picked up in the late 1980s.
Not surprisingly, many of Sachar’s novels are based on his experiences, particularly his time working in and attending elementary school. Perhaps the most well-known of his works is the series Wayside School was based on his time spent in his father’s workplace in the Empire State Building (Sachar). This book was clearly based on a location but not all of his novels started that way. His other series, the Marvin Redpost Series, based around the adventures of a boy by the same name, was developed around the characters, which is a much different process. Curiously, his most famous book Holes was developed around a combination of both the characters and the location (Sachar). Despite this range of situations and storylines, Sachar remains focused on writing for young adults, but with semi-mature overtones rather than wavering from young children to adults.
Works Cited
Sachar, Louis. Louis Sachar. Louis Sachar. 2002. Web. 15 February 2014.
