Jump to content

Dan Brown

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by GrahamHardy (talk | contribs) at 12:59, 25 April 2020 (→Early life: Wikilink). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For other uses, see Daniel Brown (disambiguation).

Dan Brown
Brown in 2007
Brown in 2007
BornDaniel Gerhard Brown[1]
(1964-06-22) June 22, 1964 (age 60)
Exeter, New Hampshire, U.S.
OccupationNovelist
LanguageEnglish
Alma materAmherst College
GenreThriller, adventure, mystery, conspiracy
Notable worksDigital Fortress
Deception Point
Angels & Demons
The Da Vinci Code
The Lost Symbol
Inferno
Origin
SpouseBlythe Newlon (m. 1997)
Signature
Website
danbrown.com

Daniel Gerhard Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author best known for his thriller novels, including the Robert Langdon novels Angels & Demons (2000), The Da Vinci Code (2003), The Lost Symbol (2009), Inferno (2013) and Origin (2017). His novels are treasure hunts that usually take place over a period of 24 hours.[2] They feature recurring themes of cryptography, art, and conspiracy theories. His books have been translated into 57 languages and, as of 2012, have sold over 200 million copies. Three of them, Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code, and Inferno, have been adapted into films.

The Robert Langdon novels are deeply engaged with Christian themes and historical fact, and have generated controversy as a result. Brown states on his website that his books are not anti-Christian, though he is on a "constant spiritual journey" himself. He claims that his book The Da Vinci Code is simply "an entertaining story that promotes spiritual discussion and debate"[3] and suggests that the book may be used "as a positive catalyst for introspection and exploration of our faith."[4]

Early life

Dan Gerhard Brown was born on June 22, 1964, in Exeter, New Hampshire[5]. He has a younger sister, Valerie (born 1968) and brother, Gregory (born 1974). Brown attended Exeter's public schools until the ninth grade.[6] He grew up on the campus of Phillips Exeter Academy, where his father, Richard G. Brown, was a teacher of mathematics and wrote textbooks[7] from 1968 until his retirement in 1997.[8] His mother, Constance (née Gerhard), trained as a church organist and student of sacred music.[6] Brown was raised an Episcopalian,[7] and described his religious evolution in a 2009 interview:

"I was raised Episcopalian, and I was very religious as a kid. Then, in eighth or ninth grade, I studied astronomy, cosmology, and the origins of the universe. I remember saying to a minister, 'I don't get it. I read a book that said there was an explosion known as the Big Bang, but here it says God created heaven and Earth and the animals in seven days. Which is right?' Unfortunately, the response I got was, 'Nice boys don't ask that question.' A light went off, and I said, 'The Bible doesn't make sense. Science makes much more sense to me.' And I just gravitated away from religion.[7]

When asked in the same interview about his then-current religious views, Brown replied:

The irony is that I've really come full circle. The more science I studied, the more I saw that physics becomes metaphysics and numbers become imaginary numbers. The further you go into science, the mushier the ground gets. You start to say, 'Oh, there is an order and a spiritual aspect to science.'"[7]

Brown's interest in secrets and puzzles stems from their presence in his household as a child, where codes and ciphers were the linchpin tying together the mathematics, music, and languages in which his parents worked. The young Brown spent hours working out anagrams and crossword puzzles, and he and his siblings participated in elaborate treasure hunts devised by their father on birthdays and holidays. On Christmas, for example, Brown and his siblings did not find gifts under the tree, but followed a treasure map with codes and clues throughout their house and even around town to find the gifts.[9] Brown's relationship with his father inspired that of Sophie Neveu and Jacques Saunière in The Da Vinci Code, and Chapter 23 of that novel was inspired by one of his childhood treasure hunts.[10]

After graduating from Phillips Exeter, Brown attended Amherst College, where he was a member of Psi Upsilon fraternity. He played squash, sang in the Amherst Glee Club, and was a writing student of visiting novelist Alan Lelchuk. Brown spent the 1985 school year abroad in Seville, Spain, where he was enrolled in an art history course at the University of Seville.[9] Brown graduated from Amherst in 1986.[11][12]

Career

Songwriter and pop singer

After graduating from Amherst, Brown 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. The music has been compared to Gary Glitter.[13] He then formed his own 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.[14][15]

He also 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 it was 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 people 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 Newlon would accompany him. They married in 1997, at Pea Porridge Pond, near Conway, New Hampshire.[16]

In 1994 Brown released a CD titled 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".[17] The CD included songs such as "Here in These Fields" and the religious ballad, "All I Believe".[18]

Brown and his wife, Blythe, moved to, Rye, New Hampshire in 1993.[19] 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.[20]

Writing

Main article: Robert Langdon (book series)

While on vacation in Tahiti in 1993,[9] Brown read Sidney Sheldon's novel The Doomsday Conspiracy, and was inspired to become a writer of thrillers.[9][21][22]

He started work on Digital Fortress, setting much of it in Seville, where he had studied in 1985. He also co-wrote a humor book with his wife, 187 Men to Avoid: A Survival Guide for the Romantically Frustrated Woman, under the pseudonym "Danielle Brown". The book's author profile reads, "Danielle Brown currently lives in New England: teaching school, writing books, and avoiding men." The copyright to the book is attributed to Brown.[23]

In 1996 Brown quit teaching to become a full-time writer. Digital Fortress was published in 1998. His wife, 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 subsequently wrote Angels & Demons and Deception Point, released in 2000 and 2001 respectively, the former of which was the first to feature the lead character, Harvard symbology expert Robert Langdon".[24] Brown's first three novels had little success, with fewer than 10,000 copies in each of their first printings. His fourth novel, The Da Vinci Code, became a bestseller, going to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list during its first week of release in 2003. It is one of the most popular books of all time, with 81 million copies sold worldwide as of 2009.[25][26] 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,[27] and, in 2005, he made Time magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People of the Year. Forbes magazine placed Brown at No. 12 on their 2005 "Celebrity 100" list, and estimated his annual income at US$76.5 million. According to the article published in The Times, the estimated income of Brown after Da Vinci Code sales is $250 million.[28] Brown's third novel featuring Robert Langdon, The Lost Symbol, was released on September 15, 2009.[29] According to the publisher, on its first day the book sold over one million in hardcover and e-book versions in the US, the UK and Canada, prompting the printing of 600,000 hardcover copies in addition to the five million first printing.[30]

The story takes place in Washington D.C. over a period of twelve hours, and features the Freemasons. The book also includes many elements that made The Da Vinci Code a number one best seller.

Brown's promotional website states that puzzles hidden in the book jacket of The Da Vinci Code, including two references to the Kryptos sculpture at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, give hints about the sequel. Brown has adopted a relevant theme in some of his earlier work.[31]

Brown's fourth novel featuring Robert Langdon, Inferno is a mystery thriller novel released on May 14, 2013, by Doubleday.[32] It ranked No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller list for the first 11 weeks of its release, has sold more than 1.4 million copies in the US alone.[33]

In a 2006 interview, Brown stated that he had ideas for about 12 future books featuring Robert Langdon.[34]

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. Brown also said that characters were based on a New Hampshire librarian, and a French teacher at Exeter, André Vernet. Cardinal Aldo Baggia, in Angels & Demons, is named after Aldo Baggia, instructor of modern languages at Phillips Exeter Academy.[35]

In interviews, Brown has said his wife, Blythe, is an art historian and painter. When they met, she was the Director of Artistic Development at the National Academy for Songwriters in Los Angeles. During the 2006 lawsuit over alleged copyright infringement in The Da Vinci Code, information was introduced at trial that showed that Blythe did research for the book.[36] In one article, she was described as "chief researcher".[37]

Doubleday published his seventh book, Origin, on October 3, 2017. It is the fifth book in his Robert Langdon series.[38]

Influences and habits

In addition to Sidney Sheldon, Brown has been quite vocal about a number of other literary influences who have inspired his writing.

Recurring elements that Brown prefers to incorporate into his novels include a simple hero pulled out of their familiar setting and thrust into a new one with which they are unfamiliar, strong female characters, travel to interesting locations, and a 24-hour time frame in which the story takes place.[2]

Brown does his writing in his loft. He 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".[39]

In August 2005 author Lewis Perdue unsuccessfully sued Brown for plagiarism, on the basis of claimed similarity between The Da Vinci Code and his novels, The Da Vinci Legacy (1983) and Daughter of God (2000). Judge George Daniels said, in part: "A reasonable average lay observer would not conclude that The Da Vinci Code is substantially similar to Daughter of God."[40]

In April 2006 Brown's publisher, Random House, won a copyright infringement case brought by authors Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who claimed that Brown stole ideas from their 1982 book Holy Blood Holy Grail for his 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code. It was in the book Holy Blood Holy Grail that Baigent, Leigh, and co-author Henry Lincoln had advanced the theory that Jesus and Mary Magdalene married and had a child and that the bloodline continues to this day. Brown apparently alluded to the two authors' names in his book. Leigh Teabing, a lead character in both the novel and the film, uses Leigh's name as the first name, and anagrammatically derives his last name from Baigent's. Mr Justice Peter Smith found in Brown's favor in the case, and as a private amusement, embedded his own Smithy code in the written judgment.[41]

On March 28, 2007, Brown's publisher, Random House, won an appeal copyright infringement case. The Court of Appeal of England and Wales rejected the efforts from Baigent and Leigh, who became liable for paying legal expenses of nearly US$6 million.[42]

Brown has been sued twice in U.S. Federal courts by the author Jack Dunn who claims Brown copied a huge part of his book The Vatican Boys to write The Da Vinci Code (2006–07) and Angels & Demons (2011-12). Both lawsuits were not allowed to go to a jury trial. In 2017, in London, another claim was begun against Brown by Jack Dunn who claimed that Justice was not served in the U.S. lawsuits.[43]

Charity work

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".[44]

Brown and his wife Blythe are supporters of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.[45]

On April 14, 2011, Dan and Blythe Brown created an eponymous scholarship fund to celebrate his 25th reunion from Amherst College, a permanently endowed scholarship fund at the college whose income provides financial aid to students there, with preference for incoming students with an interest in writing.[12]

On June 16, 2016, Dan Brown donated US$337,000 to the Ritman Library in Amsterdam to digitize a collection of ancient books.[46]

Reception

See also: Criticism of The Da Vinci Code

Brown's prose style has been criticized as clumsy,[47][48] with The Da Vinci Code being described as 'committing style and word choice blunders in almost every paragraph'.[49] Much of the criticism was centered on Brown's claim found in its preface that the novel is based on fact in relation to Opus Dei and the Priory of Sion, and that "all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in [the] novel are accurate".[50][51]

Bibliography

Stand-alone novels

Robert Langdon series

Main article: Robert Langdon (book series)

Adaptations

In 2006, Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code was released as a film by Columbia Pictures, with director Ron Howard. It was widely anticipated and launched the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, though it received overall poor reviews. It currently has a 24% rating at the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, derived from 165 negative reviews of the 214 counted.[53] It was later listed as one of the worst films of 2006 on Ebert & Roeper,[54] but also the second highest-grossing film of the year, pulling in US$750 million worldwide.[55]

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, "Phiano", which Brown wrote and performed, was listed as part of the film's soundtrack. In the film, Brown and his wife can be seen in the background of one of the early book signing scenes (Dan Brown looks briefly into the camera at time code 06:12 - 06:14, next to his wife, but both are a bit out of focus, so it's hard to catch when one watches the movie).

The next film, Angels & Demons, was released on May 15, 2009, with Howard and Hanks returning. It, too, garnered mostly negative reviews, though critics were kinder to it than to its predecessor. As of July 2013, it has a 37% meta-rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[56]

Filmmakers expressed interest in adapting The Lost Symbol into a film as well.[57][58]

The screenplay was written by Danny Strong, with pre-production expected to begin in 2013.[59] According to a January 2013 article in Los Angeles Times the final draft of the screenplay was due sometime in February,[59] but in July 2013, Sony Pictures announced they would instead adapt Inferno for an October 14, 2016[60] release date with Ron Howard as director, David Koepp adapting the screenplay and Tom Hanks reprising his role as Robert Langdon. Inferno was released on October 28, 2016. [61]

Imagine Entertainment is set to produce a television series based on Digital Fortress, to be written by Josh Goldin and Rachel Abramowitz.[62]

References

  1. ^ "The Dan Brown Enigma", Broward County, Florida Library; retrieved August 3, 2017.
  2. ^ a b Brown. Witness statement, pp. 17, 21.
  3. ^ "Veracity vs. ‘The Da Vinci Code’", Post Independent, May 26, 2006
  4. ^ "Angels & Demons and the Christian Faith", CBN
  5. ^ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dan-Brown
  6. ^ a b Rogak, Lisa (May 7, 2013). Dan Brown: The Unauthorized Biography, St. Martin's Press. pp. 6-8. Archived at Google Books; retrieved August 3, 2017.
  7. ^ a b c d Kaplan, James (September 13, 2009). "Life after 'The Da Vinci Code'". Parade.
  8. ^ Rogak (2013), p. 122
  9. ^ a b c d Lattman, Peter (March 14, 2006). "'The Da Vinci Code' Trial: Dan Brown's Witness Statement Is a Great Read". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  10. ^ Brown. Witness statement, p. 36.
  11. ^ "Bestselling authors Dan Brown '86, Charles Mann '76 to speak Thursday", amherst.edu, September 24, 2013.
  12. ^ a b "Dan Brown '86 Creates Scholarship Fund to Celebrate his 25th Reunion". Creating Connections: A Campaign for Amherst. Amherst College; retrieved August 9, 2012.
  13. ^ http://thegreatrockbible.com/portfolio-item/gary-glitter-biography/
  14. ^ "Dan Brown Facts". Softschools.com. Archived from the original on June 16, 2015. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
  15. ^ "Dan Brown - Book Series In Order". Book Series In order. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
  16. ^ Walters, Joanna and Alice O'Keeffe. How Dan Brown's wife unlocked the code to bestseller success, observer.guardian.co.uk, March 12, 2006.
  17. ^ Walters, Joanna."How Dan Brown's wife unlocked the code to bestseller success", "The Guardian", March 12, 2006
  18. ^ Rogak, Lisa. The Man Behind the Da Vinci Code – an Unauthorized Biography of Dan Brown. Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2005; ISBN 0-7407-5642-7
  19. ^ How Dan Brown's wife unlocked the code to bestseller success | UK news | The Guardian Retrieved 2018-08-25.
  20. ^ "Dan Brown's Education Background". www.eduinreview.com.
  21. ^ Sources differ on how Sheldon inspired Brown. He indicates on Page 3 of his witness statement that Sheldon's book was an attention-holding page turner that reminded him how fun it was to read, but the BBC source indicates that he thought he could "do better" than Sheldon.
  22. ^ "Decoding the Da Vinci Code author". BBC. August 10, 2004. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  23. ^ "Dan Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author of thriller fiction","Biblio"
  24. ^ "DAN BROWN’S BIOGRAPHY","florenceinferno",August 24, 2015
  25. ^ Henninger, Daniel (May 19, 2006). "Holy Sepulchre! 60 Million Buy 'The Da Vinci Code'". WSJ. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
  26. ^ Marcus, Caroline (September 13, 2009). "Brown is back with the code for a runaway bestseller". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  27. ^ Mehegan, David (May 8, 2004). "Thriller instinct". The Boston Globe. Retrieved April 20, 2009.
  28. ^ "Author Profile","The Daily Star",June 3,2007
  29. ^ Carbone, Gina (April 20, 2009). "Dan Brown announces newbook, 'The Lost Symbol'". Boston Herald. Retrieved April 20, 2009.
  30. ^ Rich, Motoko (September 16, 2009). "Dan Brown's 'Lost Symbol' Sells 1 Million Copies in the First Day". The New York Times. Retrieved September 16, 2009.
  31. ^ "Fans Of Dr. Dan Brown","Writers Cafe"
  32. ^ McLaughlin, Erin (January 15, 2013). "New Dan Brown Novel, 'Inferno', Set for May Release". ABC News. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
  33. ^ "Dan Brown". Forbes. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
  34. ^ Kirschling, Gregory (March 26, 2006). "'Da' Last Big Interview". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  35. ^ Rogak, p. 22
  36. ^ "Librarian comments on 'Da Vinci' lawsuit". USA Today. March 1, 2006. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  37. ^ "Brown duels in court". The Standard. March 16, 2006. Archived from the original on May 24, 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  38. ^ Raynor, Madeline. "Dan Brown's Origin gets fall 2017 release date". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 19, 2016.
  39. ^ "Brown plays down Code controversy". BBC. April 24, 2006. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  40. ^ "Author Brown 'did not plagiarise'". BBC. August 6, 2005. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  41. ^ "Judge creates own Da Vinci code". BBC News. April 27, 2006. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  42. ^ Herman, Michael (March 28, 2007). "Historians lose Da Vinci Code plagiarism appeal". The Times. London, UK. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  43. ^ "Dan Brown faces possible new plagiarism lawsuit over ‘The Da Vinci Code’","MarketWatch",December 14, 2017
  44. ^ "Da Vinci Code Author Dan Brown and Siblings, Valerie Brown '85 and Gregory Brown '93 Establish New Fund in Honor of their Father". November 1, 2004. Archived from the original on May 23, 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  45. ^ "Bridges: The Foundation of Our Future: THE NEW HAMPSHIRE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION 2009 REPORT TO THE COMMUNITY" Archived August 7, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. 2009; retrieved July 21, 2012.
  46. ^ "Da Vinci Code Author Dan Brown donates to Ritman Library in Amsterdam". June 16, 2016.
  47. ^ Chivers, Tom (September 15, 2009). "The Lost Symbol and The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown's 20 worst sentences". The Daily Telegraph. London, UK. Retrieved September 20, 2009.
  48. ^ Deacon, Michael (May 10, 2014). "Don't make fun of renowned Dan Brown". The Daily Telegraph. London, UK. Retrieved August 7, 2014.
  49. ^ Criticism of The Da Vinci Code, itre.cis.upenn.edu; accessed March 11, 2015.
  50. ^ Richard Abanes, The Truth Behind The Da Vinci Code (Harvest House Publishers, 2004; ISBN 0-7369-1439-0).
  51. ^ David F. Lloyd. "Facing Facts". Archived from the original on May 26, 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  52. ^ Flood, Alison (September 29, 2016). "Dan Brown returns to Da Vinci decoder for new novel Origin". The Guardian. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  53. ^ "The Da Vinci Code". rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved January 28, 2018.
  54. ^ Guest reviewer Michael Phillips, sitting in for Roger Ebert, listed The Da Vinci Code at No. 2 on his list, second to All the King's Men, "Worst Movies of 2006" Ebert & Roeper, January 13, 2007
  55. ^ The Da Vinci Code (2006), Box Office Mojo.com; accessed January 28, 2018.
  56. ^ Angels & Demons (2009), rottentomatoes.com; retrieved October 7, 2011.
  57. ^ Fleming, Michael (April 20, 2009). "Columbia moves on 'Symbol': Studio gets ball rolling with third 'Da Vinci' picture". Variety.com. Retrieved August 12, 2010.
  58. ^ "The mystery of Dan Brown". The Guardian. London, UK. September 15, 2009. Retrieved August 12, 2010.
  59. ^ a b Nicole Sperling (January 15, 2013). "Dan Brown: What's the film status of his book 'The Lost Symbol'?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
  60. ^ "Tom Hanks' 'Inferno' Shifts Opening to 2016". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved January 28, 2018.
  61. ^ "Tom Hanks And Ron Howard To Return For Next Dan Brown Movie 'Inferno'; Sony Sets December 2015 Release Date". Deadline.com. July 16, 2013. Retrieved January 28, 2018.
  62. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (September 11, 2014). "ABC Nabs Adaptation Of Dan Brown's 'Digital Fortress' From Imagine & 20th TV". Deadline. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
Library resources about
Dan Brown
Wikiquote has quotations related to Dan Brown.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dan Brown.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dan_Brown&oldid=953050643"