In his recent eponymous memoir “James Patterson,” Patterson, 75, writes about his family’s humble beginnings. His father, Charles Henry Patterson grew up in the Pogey, the poorhouse in Newburgh, New York. His grandmother was the charwoman there, and she and her son lived in the basement.
Patterson was born and raised in Newburgh as well, until his family moved to Boston for his father’s job, but he and his three sisters had a bit of a better life. “We ate. We had a house at one point. It was about 800-square feet. It wasn’t a mansion, but we were okay,” Patterson recalls.
Even when they didn’t have a lot, Patterson’s family gave back. “That’s the way I grew up. It’s just what we did, and I’ve maintained it,” he says. “My mother was a library volunteer and very involved in after school/church activities.”
It’s not surprising that Patterson’s financial status has changed from when he was a kid. After all, according to Business Insider, as of 2016, Patterson has sold 350 million books worldwide. He also holds the Guinness World Record for having the most #1 New York Times bestsellers.
But he never forgets where he came from. “I consider it actually a blessing that I still look at the world through the eyes of this kid from Newburgh, New York,” Patterson says. “Sue [his wife] and I try to be as generous as we can.”
In all, the Pattersons have donated more than $100 million.
We’d say that’s pretty generous.
How Reading Saves Lives
Photo by Rankin
For the most part, through the Patterson Family Foundation, the author and his wife have primarily given to colleges, universities and projects focused on education, reading and writing. Patterson believes helping children to read will ultimately change their lives.
His foundation has funded a program at the University of Florida that works with students from kindergarten through third grade, aiming to decrease the percentage of children who are not reading at grade level. Now, Patterson says, it’s in the mid-40 percentage range.
“If they can get that number up into the high 70s or low 80s, that will save thousands and thousands of lives,” he says. “We can help teachers to be even better, and we can make sure that a huge number of kids — when they get out of fourth grade — will be competent readers. If they’re competent readers, that means they can get through high school. It means that if college is appropriate, that’s a possibility. It means that when they are ready to join the workforce, they’ll have a better chance because they’ll be able to read reasonably well or very well.”
Oftentimes, when Patterson speaks at libraries or in front of teachers, he says that he’s there to save lives. If children don’t finish high school, he says, “They’ll wind up getting in trouble. Some of them will end up in jail. It’s a horrifying thing. [But] we can fix this.”
Books, Books And More Books
Making sure that teachers have books in their classrooms is another important cause for the author. “My mother was a teacher, and we didn’t have a lot of money. But my mother paid for the books in her classroom library and so we do the same thing,” he explains.
In conjunction with Scholastic Book Clubs, the Pattersons have given money to fund more than 18,000 classroom libraries throughout the United States.
In the past, Patterson has co-written books about military life and what it’s like to work as an ER nurse. He’s currently working on co-writing one about the lives of booksellers and librarians. “Everybody says, ‘I’m going to get a job at a bookstore because I want to sit there and read a lot.’ No. It doesn’t work that way. You have no time to read. The joy of that job is when you get to recommend books to people, and they come back and tell you they loved it,” says Patterson. If there is any profit on this book, he thinks they’ll end up giving back somehow. “The whole project is a gift to booksellers and librarians because a lot of people don’t appreciate what they do.”
Funding Future Teachers
Photo By David Burnett
The Patterson Family Foundation also donates to fund hundreds of college/university scholarships for students who are planning to become teachers.
“At one point, we had, I think, 450 kids in 20-some colleges whom we were giving scholarships to,” Patterson explains. He adds that during COVID-19, this got more complicated, so the numbers decreased, but they’re figuring out a way to get the number of scholarships back up again.
With these scholarships, Patterson has two requirements: first, if the student drops out, the scholarship ends. It doesn’t go to another student. “The only reason I do that is so that they pay attention who they’re putting in the scholarship program,” he says. Second, at the end of the year, he asks all scholarship recipients to submit a two or three-page piece to him about what they learned that year that they could take out into the world.
“That’s the notion of it. Think about where all this goes. Let’s get beyond this experience and take it out into the other part of the world,” he says, referring to the one that’s outside the college campus.
As for those papers the students send in — Patterson says he reads every single one.
While they’ve given to Patterson’s alma maters, Manhattan College and Vanderbilt University, they’ve also given to Sue’s alma mater, University of Wisconsin. At the latter, though, they also give scholarships to the school of nursing, as a nod to Patterson’s mother-in-law. “Sue’s mother was a brilliant lady. She wanted to be an economics major, but in those days, they thought that was unrealistic for a woman,” says Patterson. “So, she had a dual major — nursing and economics.”
Patterson also loves supporting future writers. For the last five or more years, he says they’ve given scholarships to the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, one of the world’s most renowned creative writing programs. “Helping writers is another thing that we try to do as much as we can,” he says.
The Pattersons, who live in Florida and New York state, give support to the A.W. Dreyfoos School of Arts in West Palm Beach, most recently sponsoring their annual holiday concert. “It’s beautiful,” Patterson says of the yearly event. “These kids are so powerful. It turned out just fabulous!” They’ve also funded after-school reading programs in four Palm Beach County middle schools, that have received up to 1,000 donated books.
Why Giving Is Important
Photo By Stephanie Diani
Even though the Pattersons give a lot, they tend to focus on teaching and education. “Occasionally, we’ll make an exception, but I have to make sure that I feel they’re going to be a good partner,” Patterson explains.
The one thing he won’t give money to is any kind of funding where something is named after him. “We don’t want a garden. We don’t want a building named after us. No. We certainly don’t want anything after we’re dead because who cares? I’m not going to look down from heaven and say, ‘Look honey, there’s our name on the cornerstone of that building,’” Patterson says while laughing. “If I ever pass — and I’m planning not to — a third of everything goes to charity as well. [But] the legacy thing is not at all interesting to us.”
What he loves best is when people come up to him and say that because of his kids’ books “You got my kids reading.” Or teachers have approached him and said, “You don’t know me, but I’m a teacher at such and such school, and you did the classroom library for us.”
How does it make him feel? “That’s the emotional stuff. It gets you. It chokes you up. I’m a baby anyway,” he jokes. “I’m basically a sap.”
Patterson believes that anyone who can give to help others should do it. “I don’t understand people that hoard money,” he says. “I know some who have two billion, 10 billion and even 20 billion dollars. When they have that much and they brag that they’ve given away a million dollars, he thinks “So what? This person has like $20 billion. I mean, what do you do with all that money? It’s bizarre to me,” he says.
“Why not give? I think the key is finding something you have some passion for. Give because it’s the right thing to do. Ultimately, you’ll feel good about it,” Patterson says. “You can say, ‘That was good. I did a good thing today.’”