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Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970 in San Francisco), is a Jewish American author, screenwriter, and accordionist. He is best known for his work under his pen name, Lemony Snicket.
Personal life
Handler is a native San Franciscan. He 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 mother is retired City College of San Francisco dean Sandra Handler.
Handler is politically active and helped form LitPAC, a political action committee formed to assist liberal candidates.
His professional work
Handler has pursued careers in books, music, and film.
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.
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 for 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 of 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]
Lemony Snicket
- For more on Lemony Snicket as a pseudonym and character, see Lemony Snicket
Handler began writing 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 mediums, including the commentary track for the film version of his books, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.
The Lemony Snicket books have been international bestsellers, and the 13th and final installment of the series came out Friday, October 13th 2006. On the day the 13th book came out, Handler appeared on the Today show as Lemony Snicket's representative.
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.
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 ended up doing a rewrite and eventually received credit for the film, and Handler has noted his pleasure with the film.
Handler did submit a commentary track for the DVD version of the Lemony Snicket film. 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.
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.
Books
- The Basic Eight - St. Martin's Press/Harper Collins - 1998
- Watch Your Mouth - St. Martin's Press/Harper Collins - 2000
- Nonsense Novels (by Stephen Leacock, introduction by Daniel Handler) - New York Review of Books Classics - 2004
- How to Dress for Every Occasion by the Pope (with illustrations by Sarah "Pinkie" Bennett, actually Lisa Brown) - McSweeney's - 2005
- Adverbs - Harper Collins - 2006
- A Series of Unfortunate Events - Harper Collins - 1999 to 2006
Film
- Rick - 2003
- Kill the Poor - 2006
Music
- 69 Love Songs - The Magnetic Fields
- The 6ths.
- The Tragic Treasury - The Gothic Archies
References
External links
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