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Dan Brown
Born	(1964-06-22) June 22, 1964 (age 60) Exeter, New Hampshire, U.S.
Occupation	Novelist
Genre	Thriller, Mystery fiction
Website
danbrown.com

Dan Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author of thriller fiction, best known for the 2003 bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code.

Early life

Dan Brown was born and raised in Exeter,New Hampshire, USA, the eldest of three children. His mother Constance (Connie) was a professional musician, playing organ at church. Brown's father Richard G. Brown was a prominent mathematics teacher, writing textbooks and teaching high school mathematics at Phillips Exeter Academy from 1968 until his retirement in 1982.

Phillips Exeter Academy is an exclusive boarding school, which requires new teachers to live on campus for several years, so Brown and his siblings were raised at the school. His own schooling was at public schools in Exeter until the 9th grade, at which time he enrolled in Phillips Exeter (Class of 1982), as did his younger siblings Valerie (1985) and Gregory (1993).

Songwriter and pop singer

After graduating from Phillips Exeter in 1982, Brown attended Amherst College, where he was a member of Psi Upsilon fraternity. He played squash and sang in the Amherst Glee Club, and was a writing student of novelist Alan Lelchuk.

Brown graduated from Amherst with a double major in Spanish and English in 1986, and then dabbled with a musical career, creating effects with a synthesizer, and self-producing a children's cassette entitled SynthAnimals which included a collection of tracks such as "Happy Frogs" and "Suzuki Elephants"; it sold a few hundred copies. He then formed his own (vanity) record company called Dalliance, and in 1990 self-published a CD entitled Perspective, targeted to the adult market, which also sold a few hundred copies. In 1991 he moved to Hollywood to pursue a career as singer-songwriter and pianist. To support himself, he taught classes at Beverly Hills Preparatory School.

While in Los Angeles he joined the National Academy of Songwriters, and participated in many of its events. It was there that he met Blythe Newlon, a woman 12 years his senior, who was the Academy's Director of Artist Development. Though not officially part of her job, she took on the seemingly unusual task of helping to promote Brown's projects; she wrote press releases, set up promotional events, and put him in contact with individuals who could be helpful to his career. She and Brown also developed a personal relationship, though this was not known to all of their associates until 1993, when Brown moved back to New Hampshire, and it was learned that Blythe would accompany him. They married in 1997, at Pea Porridge Pond, a location near North Conway, New Hampshire.

Along with helping his singing career, Blythe has also been a major influence on Brown's career as an author, as she assists with much of the promotion involved with his books. She co-wrote both of his early "humor" books, which were written under pseudonyms, and there is speculation that she may have helped with other books as well. In the Acknowledgement for Deception Point, Brown thanked "Blythe Brown for her tireless research and creative input."

In 1993, Brown released the self-titled CD Dan Brown, which included songs such as "976-Love" and "If You Believe in Love".

New England teacher

Brown and Blythe moved to his home town in New Hampshire in 1993. Brown became an English teacher at his alma mater Phillips Exeter, and gave Spanish classes to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders at Lincoln Akerman School, a small school for K–8th grade with about 250 students, in Hampton Falls.

In 1994, Brown released a CD entitled Angels & Demons. Its artwork was the same ambigram by artist John Langdon which he later used for the novel Angels & Demons. The liner notes also again credited his wife for her involvement, thanking her "for being my tireless cowriter, coproducer, second engineer, significant other, and therapist."

This CD included songs such as "Here in These Fields" and the religious ballad "All I Believe."

Also in 1994, while on holiday in Tahiti, he read Sidney Sheldon's novel The Doomsday Conspiracy, and decided that he could do better. He started work on Digital Fortress, and also co-wrote a humor book with his wife, 187 Men to Avoid: A Guide for the Romantically Frustrated Woman, under the pseudonym "Danielle Brown" (one of the 187 items in the book was "Men who write self-help books for women"). The book's author profile reads, "Danielle Brown currently lives in New England: teaching school, writing books, and avoiding men." The copyright, however, is listed as "Dan Brown". It sold a few thousand copies before going out of print.

Author

In 1996, Brown quit teaching to become a full-time writer. Digital Fortress was published in 1998. Blythe did much of the book's promotion, writing press releases, booking Brown on talk shows, and setting up press interviews. A few months later, Brown and his wife released The Bald Book, another humor book. It was officially credited to his wife, though a representative of the publisher said that it was primarily written by Brown.

Brown's first three novels had little success, with fewer than 10,000 copies in each of their first printings; but the fourth novel, The Da Vinci Code, became a runaway bestseller, going to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list during its first week of release in 2003. It is now credited with being one of the most popular books of all time, with 60.5 million copies sold worldwide as of 2006. Its success has helped push sales of Brown's earlier books. In 2004, all four of his novels were on the New York Times list in the same week, and in 2005, he made Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of the year. Forbes magazine placed Brown at #12 on their 2005 "Celebrity 100" list, and estimated his annual income at US$76.5 million. The Times estimated his income from 'Da Vinci Code' sales as $250 million.

In October 2004, Brown and his siblings donated US$2.2 million to Phillips Exeter Academy in honor of their father, to set up the "Richard G. Brown Technology Endowment," to help "provide computers and high-tech equipment for students in need."

Brown is interested in cryptography, keys, and codes, which are a recurring theme in his stories. Currently his novels have been translated into more than 40 languages.

In 2006, Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code was released as a film by Columbia Pictures, with director Ron Howard; the film starred Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, Audrey Tautou as Sophie Neveu and Sir Ian McKellen as Sir Leigh Teabing. It was considered one of the most anticipated films of the year, and was used to launch the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, though it received overall poor reviews. It was later listed as one of the worst films of 2006, but also the second highest grossing film of the year, pulling in $750 million USD. Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman has been commissioned to adapt Angels & Demons, although whether Ron Howard will direct the project is as yet unknown.

Brown was listed as one of the executive producers of the film The Da Vinci Code, and also created additional codes for the film. One of his songs, "Piano", which Brown wrote and performed, was listed as part of the film's soundtrack.

Copyright infringement case

On March 28, 2007, Brown successfully defended a copyright infringement case brought by authors Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh. Britain's Court of Appeal rejected the efforts from two authors who claimed that Brown stole their ideas for The Da Vinci Code. Baigent and Leigh, who wrote Holy Blood, Holy Grail in 1982, argued that Brown stole significant elements from their book. Both are based on a theory that Jesus and Mary Magdalene married and had a child and that the bloodline continues to this day. Baigent and Leigh are liable for paying legal expenses of nearly $6 million USD. Brown even alluded to the two authors names in his book. Leigh Teabing, a lead character in both the novel and the film, anagrammatically derives his last name from Baigent's, while using Leigh's name verbatim.

Work

CDs

• SynthAnimals, a children's album
• Perspective, 1990, Dalliance. Music CD
• Dan Brown, 1993, DBG Records, (included songs "976-Love" and "If You Believe in Love")
• Angels & Demons, 1994, DBG Records (included songs "Here in these Fields" and "All I Believe")
• Musica Animalia 2003, a charity CD for the organization Families First

Humor writing

• 187 Men to Avoid: A Survival Guide for the Romantically Frustrated Woman, 1995, Berkley Publishing Group (co-written with his wife under the pseudonym Danielle Brown). ISBN 0-425-14783-5, Scheduled for re-release in August 2006
• The Bald Book, 1998, co-written with his wife Blythe Brown. ISBN 0-7860-0519-X

Novels

• Digital Fortress, 1998
• Angels & Demons, 2000
  • Angels and Demons, Special Illustrated Edition, 2005, Atria. ISBN 0-7432-7506-3
• Deception Point, 2001
• The Da Vinci Code, 2003
  • The Da Vinci Code, Special Illustrated Edition, 2004, Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-51375-5
• The Solomon Key, in development, will possibly be published in 2008

Movies

• The Da Vinci Code, 2006 (Brown is listed as executive producer)
• Angels & Demons, Fall 2008

Future projects

• Brown is working on a new novel, called The Solomon Key, which will reportedly take place in Washington D.C., and feature the "secret" society of the Freemasons. An exact release date has not been announced, but the most common media speculation says 2008. Brown's promotional website states that puzzles hidden in the bookjacket of The Da Vinci Code (including two referring to the Kryptos sculpture at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia) give hints about the subject of this novel. This repeats a theme from some of Brown's earlier work. For example, a puzzle at the end of the book Deception Point decrypts to the message, "The Da Vinci Code will surface." (See: Deception Point)
• He says that he currently has outlines for several future books, one of which involves a famous composer's "all factual" associations with a secret society. Speculation is that this may mean Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was also a Freemason.
• Books claiming to reveal the secrets of the new novel such as Secrets of the Widow's Son describes itself as an 'explorer's field guide' to the book. Also, The Guide to Dan Brown's The Solomon Key hints that the book will probably explore the Skull and Bones fraternity at Yale, to which George Bush and John Kerry both belonged.

Miscellanea

This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. (September 2007)

• His bestseller The Da Vinci Code was his first hit and became the first to be adapted into a film. However, it is actually the second book in which Robert Langdon appears. The first is Angels and Demons, which is scheduled to become a film as well.
• The fictional Langdon's alma mater is Phillips Exeter Academy, the same school that Brown attended.
• Characters in Brown's books are often named after real people in his life. Robert Langdon is named after John Langdon, the artist who created the ambigrams used for the Angels & Demons CD and novel. Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca is named after "On A Claire Day" cartoonist friend Carla Ventresca. In the Vatican Archives, Langdon recalls a wedding of two people named Dick and Connie, which are the names of his parents. Robert Langdon's editor Jonas Faukman, is named after Brown's real life editor Jason Kaufman. Sir Leigh Teabing was named after authors Leigh and Baigent ('Teabing' is an anagram for 'Baigent') who wrote Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Holy Blood, Holy Grail is a work which researches the same story The Da Vinci Code uses as its main plot. Brown also said that characters were based on a New Hampshire librarian, and a French teacher at Exeter, Andre Vernet.
• In a statement at trial in March 2006, Brown wrote that while he was growing up, on birthdays and Christmas, he and his siblings were led on elaborate treasure hunts to find their gifts, following cryptic clues and codes left by their father. This is the same event that he used to describe the fictional childhood of Sophie Neveu in The Da Vinci code.
• Brown plays tennis, and does his writing in his loft, often getting up at 4 a.m. to work. He keeps an antique hourglass on his desk, to remind himself to take breaks.
• Brown has told fans that he uses inversion therapy to help with writer's block. He uses gravity boots and says, “hanging upside down seems to help me solve plot challenges by shifting my entire perspective.”
• There is a brief appearance of Brown and his wife in the 2005 film Be Cool, in the front row of the audience at the Aerosmith concert.
• Although many claim Brown's books such as The Da Vinci Code are perceived as anti-Christian, Brown calls himself a Christian who says the controversy is good to inspire "discussion and debate" that will ultimately lead to a more solidly defended faith.
• In the film version of The Da Vinci Code, Brown and his wife can be seen in the background of one of the early booksigning scenes.

Criticism and disputed claims

Though it is undisputed that Brown is a highly popular author, much criticism centres on his claims that details in his books are fact. As one example (alone) in Angels and Demons, Brown has a central plot device that requires Camerlengos are not cardinals and are not eligible for election as pope. Camerlengos are always cardinals and two have been elected as Pope: Leo XIII in 1878 and Pius XII in 1939.
Some interview statements by Brown have been brought into question:

• In interviews, Brown has said that his wife is an "art historian" and "painter", though there was no record of her having worked professionally in this capacity. When they met, she was the Director of Artistic Development at the National Academy for Songwriters in Los Angeles. However, during the 2006 lawsuit over alleged copyright infringement in The Da Vinci Code, information was introduced at trial which showed that Blythe did indeed do a great deal of research for the book. In one article, she was described as "chief researcher".

See also

• Criticisms of the Da Vinci Code
• Angels & Demons

Notes

6. Wall Street Journal
8. "Da Vinci Code Dad Named in Multimillion-Dollar Gift", November 1, 2004, The Exeter Initiatives
9. List of foreign-language versions, at Brown's webpage
10. Guest reviewer Michael Phillips, sitting in for Roger Ebert, listed The Da Vinci Code at #2 on his list, second to All the King's Men. "Worst Movies of 2006", Ebert & Roeper, January 13, 2007
11. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=davincicode.htm
12. Movie news at comingsoon.net
13. 'Da Vinci Code' Author Wins in Court. March 28, 2007.
19. Guardian Article of Brown's Future Novel

References

• Official website
• "Author talk", March 20, 2003, at bookreporter.com
• BBC News, August 10, 2004. "Dan Brown: Decoding the Da Vinci Code author"
• "Veni vidi da Vinci", December 12, 2004, author profile at The Guardian
• "Da Vinci Code Dad Named in Multimillion-Dollar Gift", November 1, 2004, The Exeter Initiatives (includes photo of Brown and his family)
• Rogak, Lisa. The Man Behind the Da Vinci Code - an Unauthorized Biography of Dan Brown, 2005, Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-5642-7
• MP3 excerpts of Brown's CDs, at Rogak's website
• "Harry Potter still magic for book sales", January 9, 2006, CBC Arts - lists comparative sales figures between a few bestselling books in North America, including two of Brown's books, the latest Harry Potter book, and A Million Little Pieces, by James Frey
• The Observer, March 12, 2006, "How Dan Brown's wife unlocked the code to bestseller success"
• The Standard, March 15, 2006, "Brown duels in court"
• The Age (Australia), March 16, 2006, "Da Vinci author finds his marriage on trial"
• Dan Brown witness statement in Da Vinci Code case, March 14, 2006

External links

• Official Dan Brown Site
• Dan Brown entry at nndb.com - Notable Name Database
• The Dan Brown Code - In a court filing, the best-selling author of The Da Vinci Code reveals all the secrets of a pulp novelist.
• Paris The 0-meridian in the Da Vinci Code is in fact an art project by the Dutch artist Jan Dibbets (1941) made in 1987 as a tribute to the astronomer François Arago (1786-1853)
• Australia's Courier Mail, January 12, 2006, "New e-book offers readers more time"
• Summary of Judgement - April 7, 2006, Court's ruling on copyright infringement of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail"
• Dan Brown at the Internet Book List
• (Spanish) Criticism in the Spanish-language Epoca of Digital Fortress' description of locations in Seville

• Articles with trivia sections from September 2007
• American thriller writers
• American novelists
• Amherst College alumni
• People from Exeter, New Hampshire
• Phillips Exeter Academy alumni
• New Hampshire writers
• 1964 births
• Living people