Dan Brown
So Dark the Con of Man
Dan Brown is an American author, who currently published four novels, two of them were adapted to movies, and a fifth book is on its way.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early Life
Brown was born on June 22nd, 1964 in New Hampshire, USA, to Constance and Richard G. Brown. Brown and his two younger siblings were raised in a board school where his father taught mathematics, and was obligated to reside at for ten years as part of his job. After graduating from high school in 1982, Brown attended Amherst College, from which he graduated with a major in English and Spanish in 1986. Brown played squash (much like Robert Langdon), and took part in a fraternity and sang in the Amherst Glee Club.
[edit] Short Musical Career
Following his experience as a singer in university, Brown attempted to enter the music business by creating a children's cassette ("SynthAnimals"), and later released a CD ("Perspective"). Soon after moving to Los Angeles, where he joined the the National Academy of Songwriters, he met his future wife, Blythe Newlon. Newlon aided Brown by promoting him through promotional events and personal connections. The two soon fell in love, and moved back to New Hampshire, only to marry each other four years later. Brown's last musical products were two other CDs he released, entitled "Dan Brown" and "Angels and Demons" (his future best-seller).
[edit] Beginning of Writing
Brown's sudden transition to writing occured during a vacation in Tahiti, when he read "The Doomsday Conspiracy", a novel by Sidney Sheldon, and believed he could do better. Brown then started working on Digital Fortress, which was evantually published in 1998. In between the writing on his suspense books, Brown and his wife released humor books, under which he is credited as Danielle Brown. Digital Fortress was not an immidiate success, which was held away from Brown until he published his fourth and most successful book, The Da Vinci Code.
[edit] Bestselling Author & Future
Brown's fourth book, The Da Vinci Code proved to be an immidiate success, reaching the top of the New York Times Best Seller list, and selling over 60 million copies. Brown also got into Time's list of the 100 most influential people of 2005. In 2006, his last book was adapted to the big screens, in a production that had Ron Howard as the director, Tom Hanks starring as Robert Langdon and a long list of talented actors portraying the rest of the characters. Brown himself was credited as an executive producer and as a writer for the movie. Three years later, his prequel to Da Vinci Code was turned into a movie as well, serving as a sequel. Tom Hanks returned as Langdon, and Howard directed it as well.
The Da Vinci Code caught the media's attention, both as a novel and a movie. Many religious instititues presented the book as "Anti-Christian" (while Brown himself declared he is Christian), and one case even claimed that Brown plagarised the idea behind the Holy Grail from a book titled Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Brown won the case in 2007.
Brown's upcoming fifth book, The Solomon Key is set for release in February 2009. The plot itself remain a mystery, yet it is speculated the book will center around the Freemasons, the builders who built King Solomon's Temple, and were referrenced in Brown's Da Vinci Code. Another aspect the book might explore is the "Skull and Bones" fraternity at Yale University, which George W. Bush belonged too. Brown also claimed to have several ideas that could make 12 future books.
[edit] Trivia
- Brown implied that his characters' manners and names often come from his personal world. Langdon is named after John Langdon, an artist who helped with the art for Angels and Demons' cover; Langdon's fictional editor is named Jonas Faukman, while Brown's real-life editor is Jason Kaufman.
- In order to deal with his writer's block, Brown uses gravity boots, which according to Brown "hanging upside down seems to help me solve plot challenges by shifting my entire perspective". [ 1 ]
- Brown starts writing each day at 4 AM, with an antique hour glass on his desk. At the end of every 60 minutes, Brown takes a break to do push-ups, sit-ups and stretches.
- He shares the same birthday and place of bitrh with his fictional protagonist Robert Langdon.
