Daniel Handler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Daniel Handler at a party celebrating the publication of The End, the thirteenth and final installment of A Series of Unfortunate Events, October 12, 2006, in New York City. (Photo by Ron Hogan) |
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| Pseudonym: | Lemony Snicket |
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| Born: | February 28, 1970 (age 37) San Francisco, California |
| Occupation: | Novelist, screenwriter |
| Nationality: |  United States |
| Writing period: | 1998 - |
| Genres: | Literary fiction, black comedy, children's literature |
| Debut works: | As Daniel Handler: The Basic Eight (1998) As Lemony Snicket: The Bad Beginning (1999) |
| Website: | lemonysnicket.com |
Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970), is an American author, screenwriter, and accordionist. He is best known for his work under his pen name, Lemony Snicket.
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[edit] Personal life
Handler was born in in San Francisco, California, and is an alumnus of the San Francisco Boys Chorus and graduate of Lowell High School. Handler graduated from Wesleyan University in 1992.
Handler is married to Lisa Brown, who is a graphic artist he met at the University, and he lives in an old Victorian house in San Francisco. His father Louis Handler, is an accountant, and his mother is retired City College of San Francisco dean Sandra Handler. He also has a younger sister, Rebecca Handler. Handler has one son named Otto, who was born around Halloween 2003.
Handler is politically active and helped form LitPAC, a political action committee formed to assist liberal candidates.[1]
[edit] His professional work
Handler has pursued careers in books, music, and film.
[edit] Books
Three of Handler's novels have been published. His first, The Basic Eight, was rejected by many publishers for its subject matter and tone (a dark view of a teenage girl's life). Handler claims that the novel was rejected thirty-seven times before finally being published. The book's tone served as an impetus of sorts for the Lemony Snicket works, the sad A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Watch Your Mouth, his second novel, was actually completed before The Basic Eight was published. It follows a more operatic theme, complete with stage directions and various acts. Described by HarperCollins, the book's reprint publisher, as an "incest opera," it mixed Jewish mythology with modern sexuality. Watch Your Mouth's second half replaces the opera trope with the form of a 12-step recovery, linguistically undergone by the protagonist.
His most recent effort under his own name is Adverbs, a series of short stories that he says are "about love." It was published in April 2006.
Handler has stated that his next adult novel is about pirates - or, more specifically, a modern-age pirate who "wants to be an old-fashioned kind of pirate". [1]
[edit] Lemony Snicket
Handler began writing A Series of Unfortunate Events under the Snicket pseudonym in 1999. The books concern three orphaned children who have progressively more terrible things happen to them, and Snicket acts as the narrator and biographer of the fictional orphans.
Handler has also appeared at author appearances as "Lemony Snicket's handler," as well as appeared as Snicket himself in various other books and media, including the commentary track for the film version of his books, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. He also wrote an introduction to Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography under his own name.
The Lemony Snicket books have been international bestsellers, and the 13th and final installment of the series came out Friday, October 13, 2006. On the day the thirteenth book came out, Handler appeared on the Today show as Lemony Snicket's representative.
Handler has also written some short fiction under the Lemony Snicket pseudonym.
[edit] Music
Handler is an accomplished musician, having played accordion on various recordings as well as worked on an unfinished musical with The Magnetic Fields singer and songwriter Stephin Merritt.
He was in two bands following college, The Edith Head Trio and Tzamboni, neither of which had any noted success. He has also played accordion in the Merritt project The Gothic Archies, which have provided music for the audiobooks in the Series of Unfortunate Events.
Handler also contributed accordion to a number of tracks in the Magnetic Fields project 69 Love Songs. In the box set of the project, Handler provides a lengthy interview with Merritt about the project, as well as conversations about the songs.
On October 10, 2006, an album with all 13 songs from the 13 audiobooks in A Series of Unfortunate Events was released. The album includes two additional songs, one about the band attributed to producing the album--The Gothic Archies.
Handler also wrote the lyrics to the song "Radio," performed by One Ring Zero
[edit] Film
Handler has also had some success in film work. He produced the screenplay for Rick, which was based on the Verdi opera Rigoletto, as well as Kill the Poor, which was based on the novel by Joel Rose.
Handler was involved in the screenwriting process for the film version of A Series of Unfortunate Events, but was ultimately removed from the project. He had completed eight separate drafts of the film before giving up following a change in those who were producing the film. Robert Gordon (screenwriter of Galaxy Quest) was hired to replace Handler and eventually received credit for the film's screenplay, and Handler has noted his pleasure with the film.
Handler did submit a commentary track for the DVD version of the Lemony Snicket film, alongside director Brad Silberling. In character as Snicket, he derides the Snicket in the film - played by Jude Law - as an imposter, as well as choosing to play accordion and sing about leeches rather than pay attention to the film. He also made several interesting comments about the film which include the company Nickelodeon, "being on another planet, I see" when he saw the planets in the Nickelodeon Movies title, as well as being "frightened by the sudden appearance of an eye" when Aunt Josephine looks through her front door's eye hole. At numerous times during the track he comments on the horrible things that are happening to the poor children, and implies that he is being held captive by the director in order to do the commentary.
[edit] List of works
This is a partial list of works Handler has created or been involved with. For more information regarding his works as Lemony Snicket, see Lemony Snicket.
[edit] Books
- The Basic Eight St. Martin's Press/HarperCollins (1998)
- Watch Your Mouth St. Martin's Press/HarperCollins (2000)
- How to Dress for Every Occasion, by the Pope (with illustrations by Sarah "Pinkie" Bennett, pseudonym for Lisa Brown) McSweeney's (2005)
- Adverbs HarperCollins (2006)
- A Series of Unfortunate Events (as Lemony Snicket) HarperCollins (1999 to 2006)
- Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid
As editor or contributor:
- Nonsense Novels by Stephen Leacock (Introduction) New York Review of Books Classics (2004)
[edit] Film
- Rick (2003)
- Kill the Poor (2006)
[edit] Music
- 69 Love Songs - The Magnetic Fields
- The 6ths.
- The Tragic Treasury - The Gothic Archies
[edit] References
- ^ LitPAC to Fundraise for Liberal Candidates. Associated Press (2006-04-03). Retrieved on October 5, 2006.
[edit] External links
- The Official Lemony Snicket website
- Daniel Handler at the Internet Movie Database
- Fortunate Events: Winds, vertiginous views and snakes converge in Lemony Snicket's neck of the woods San Francisco Chronicle (May 18, 2003)
- Fresh Air interview - Audio interview from Fresh Air broadcast December 10, 2001.
- Interview with Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket
- The Onion AV Club interview with Daniel Handler.
- The Bat Segundo Show #66 (2006 podcast interview)
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Handler, Daniel |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Snicket, Lemony (pseudonym) |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Novelist, children's writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 28, 1970 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | San Francisco, California |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
