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'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.

Contents

Personal life

His professional work

Books

Lemony Snicket

Music

Film

List of works

Books

Film

Music

References

External links

Personal life

Handler was born in San Francisco, California, and is an alumnus of the San Francisco Boys Chorus and graduate of Lowell High School and Herbert Hoover Middle 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]
In the June 10, 2007 edition of ''The New York Times Magazine'' Handler reveals ambivalence toward his wealth, and the expectations it creates. He states he is often asked for money for charitable causes and often gives.
In an interview conducted by the 667 Dark Avenue fansite, Daniel Handler gave his personal philosophy as 'Never refuse a breath mint.' ^[2]

His professional work

Handler has pursued careers in books, music, and film.

Books

Three of his novels have been published under his name. 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]

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 appearing 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 '' under his own name.
The Lemony Snicket books have been international bestsellers, and the 13th and final instalment 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.

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''
In the comentary on Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Handler plays a song about how depressing it is to have leeches in a film.

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, commenting that The Littlest Elf has "well-armed friends" when he notices the rifle in one of the elf's hands, 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.

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/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)

★ '' (as Lemony Snicket)

★ ''The Beatrice Letters'' (as Lemony Snicket)

★ ''The Unauthorized Autobiography'' (as Lemony Snicket)
'As editor or contributor:'

★ ''Nonsense Novels'' by Stephen Leacock (Introduction) New York Review of Books Classics (2004)

Film

★ ''Rick'' (2003)

★ ''Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events '' (2004)

★ ''Kill the Poor'' (2006)

Music

★ ''69 Love Songs'' - The Magnetic Fields

★ ''The 6ths''.

★ ''The Tragic Treasury'' - The Gothic Archies

References

1. LitPAC to Fundraise for Liberal Candidates
2. 21 Questions, 21 Answers

External links

★ The Official Lemony Snicket website

★

★ Article in the New York Times Magazine, June 10, 2007

★ 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.

★ The Onion AV Club interview with Daniel Handler.

★ The Bat Segundo Show #66 (2006 podcast interview)

★ Daniel Handler on creativity and the creative process, an interview with about-creativity.com June 14, 2007

★ Handler Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos