Daniel Handler | |
|---|---|
 Handler at a party celebrating the publication ofThe End, on October 12, 2006 | |
| Born | (1970-02-28)February 28, 1970 (age 55) |
| Pen name | Lemony Snicket |
| Occupation |
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| Period | 1998–present |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Notable works | A Series of Unfortunate Events,All the Wrong Questions,The Basic Eight,Watch Your Mouth,Adverbs |
| Spouse | Lisa Brown[1] |
| Children | 1 |
| Signature | |
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Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970) is an American author, musician, screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is best known for hischildren's book seriesA Series of Unfortunate Events andAll the Wrong Questions, published under the pen nameLemony Snicket.[2] The former was adapted intoa film in 2004, as well asa Netflix series from 2017 to 2019.
Handler has published adult novels and a stage play under his real name, along with other children's books under the Snicket pseudonym. His first book, a satirical fiction piece titledThe Basic Eight, was rejected by many publishers for its dark subject matter.
Handler has also played theaccordion in several bands, and appeared on the album69 Love Songs by indie pop bandThe Magnetic Fields.[3]
Handler was born inSan Francisco, California, the son of Sandra Handler (née Walpole), a retiredCity College of San Francisco dean, and Louis Handler, an accountant.[4] His father was aJewish refugee fromGermany in 1939. His mother is distantly related to British writerHugh Walpole.[5][6] Of his early religious upbringing, Handler said, "I had a fairly standardReform Jewish upbringing, I guess, in terms of the religious side of it."[7] He has a younger sister, Rebecca Handler. He attended Commodore Sloat Elementary,Herbert Hoover Middle School, andLowell High School. He graduated fromWesleyan University in 1992.[8] He was awarded the 1992 Connecticut Student Poet Prize, which he has said he won by ripping offElizabeth Bishop.[9] He is an alumnus of theSan Francisco Boys Chorus.[10]
Handler has been a voracious reader since childhood. The first book he bought as a child wasThe Blue Aspic byEdward Gorey,[11] of whom he is a fan.[12] He enjoyed the writings ofWilliam Maxwell[13] andRoald Dahl.[14]
He is married toLisa Brown, an illustrator he met in college.[15][16] They have a child, born in 2003.[17] They live in anEdwardian house in San Francisco.[18]
Handler has expressed ambivalence about his wealth and the expectations it creates. He often donates money to charitable causes.[19] Handler and his wife have also donated $1,000,000 to Planned Parenthood,[20] and he has supported theOccupy Wall Street movement.[21][22]
Handler describes himself as asecular humanist and an atheist.[23][24] He describes himself as having developed a "feminist consciousness" while in college.[25]
Six of Handler's major works have been published under his name.[26] 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 has said the novel was rejected 37 times before being published in 1999.[27][28]
Watch Your Mouth, his second novel, was completed before publication ofThe Basic Eight. It follows a more operatic theme, complete with stage directions and various acts.Watch Your Mouth's second half replaces the opera troupe with the form of a 12-step recovery program, linguistically undergone by the protagonist.[citation needed] In April 2005, Handler publishedAdverbs, a collection of short stories that he says are "about love." It was followed in 2011 byWhy We Broke Up, which received a 2012 Michael L. Printz honor award.[29] Handler's 2015 novelWe Are Pirates[30] is about a modern-age pirate who "wants to be an old-fashioned kind of pirate."[31][32] His most recent novel,All the Dirty Parts, was published in 2017[33] and "takes the blunt and constant presence of a male teen's sexuality and considers it with utmost seriousness".[26]
Handler served as a judge for thePEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship in 2012.[34] In 2016, he founded Per Diem Press, a poetry competition for young writers.[35] He awarded $1,000 to three winners and published a chapbook of their work.[36]
Handler wrote the bestselling series of 13 novelsA Series of Unfortunate Events under the Snicket pseudonym from 1999 to 2006.[37] The series is about three orphaned children who experience increasingly terrible events after their parents die and their home burns. Snicket acts as the orphans' narrator and biographer.[38] Handler narrated theaudiobooks for three books in the series before handing back the narrating job to the original narrator,Tim Curry.[citation needed]
From 2012 to 2015, Handler published the four-part seriesAll the Wrong Questions under the name Lemony Snicket; the books explore Snicket's childhood and V.F.D. apprenticeship in the failing town Stain'd-by-the-Sea.[39][40][41] He has also written other children's novels under the Snicket name, including companion books to his two Snicket series,[42] and children's books such asThe Composer is Dead[43] andThe Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming.[44]
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Handler was in two bands after college, the Edith Head Trio and Tzamboni, but his music received little attention until69 Love Songs, a three-album set byThe Magnetic Fields on which he played accordion.[45][46][47] In the box set of the project, Handler interviews band leaderStephin Merritt about the project. He also appears in Kerthy Fix's andGail O'Hara's 2009 documentaryStrange Powers, about Merritt and the Magnetic Fields.
Handler has played accordion in several other Merritt projects, includingThe 6ths andThe Gothic Archies, the last of which provided songs for theA Series of Unfortunate Events audiobooks. In 2006, a Gothic Archies album was released with all 13 songs from the 13A Series of Unfortunate Events audiobooks, along with two bonus songs.
In the audio commentary on the film adaptationLemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Handler plays a song about how depressing it is to have leeches in a film.
Handler wrote the lyrics to the song "Radio", performed byOne Ring Zero,[48] and "The Gibbons Girl", byChris Ewen's The Hidden Variable.
In 2017, Handler wrote the playImaginary Comforts,and The Story of The Ghost of The Dead Rabbit, which was performed at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre.[49] The satirical play follows the intertwining lives of three characters and is inspired by the grief Handler felt after his father's death.[50]
Handler has also had some success in film. He produced the screenplay forRick, based on theVerdi operaRigoletto,[51] as well asKill the Poor, based on the novel byJoel Rose.[52]
Handler was involved in the screenwriting process for the filmLemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events but was ultimately removed from the project. After writing eight drafts of the script for Sonnenfeld,[53] he was replaced byRobert Gordon in May 2003.[54] Handler approved of the changes that were made to his original screenplay.[55] "I was offered credit on the film for screenwriting by theWriters Guild of America," Handler said, "but I didn't take it because I didn't write it. I felt like it would be an insult to the guy who did."[53]
Handler submitted a commentary track for the DVD version alongside directorBrad Silberling. In character as Lemony Snicket, he derides the Lemony Snicket in the film as an impostor and plays the accordion and sings about leeches rather than pay attention to the film. Many times during the track, he shows great sympathy towards the Baudelaire children and implies that he is being held captive by the director to do the commentary.[56]
Handler was a writer on the Netflix seriesA Series of Unfortunate Events, also contributing lyrics to the show's theme song, which varies each episode.[57][58] The show has won several accolades, including aPeabody Award in 2017 for excellence in children's and youth programming.[59]
At the November 2014National Book Awards ceremony, Handler made a controversial remark after authorJacqueline Woodson was presented with an award forBrown Girl Dreaming. During the ceremony, he said that Woodson was allergic to watermelon, a reference to the racistwatermelon stereotype. His comments were immediately criticized;[60][61] Handler apologized and donated $10,000 toWe Need Diverse Books, and promised to match donations up to $100,000.[62] In aNew York Timesop-ed published shortly thereafter, "The Pain of the Watermelon Joke", Woodson wrote that "in making light of that deep and troubled history" with his joke, Handler had come from a place of ignorance, but underscored the need for her mission to "give people a sense of this country's brilliant and brutal history, so no one ever thinks they can walk onto a stage one evening and laugh at another's too often painful past".[63][64][65]
In February 2018, Handler signed an online pledge to boycott conferences that do not have and enforce harassment policies. Underneath his comment, author Kate Messner recounted an incident in which Handler had made inappropriate jokes directed at her, such as "Are you a virgin, too?!" and "These children's book events always turn into orgies!"[66] This led to many other women accusing Handler of verbal sexual harassment at book conferences; among the public accusations are stories of Handler telling a woman he had just met to kiss a random stranger, making crass comments to a teenage girl and walking off without apology when confronted, referring to a stranger as a "hot blonde" and making a "uni-ball" double entendre in front of young children. The incident occurred during the largerMe Too movement.[66][67]
Handler apologized for his behavior, saying, "It has never been my wish to insult any of my professional colleagues",[66] "my sense of humor has not been for everyone",[67] "as a survivor of sexual violence, I also know very well how words or behaviors that are harmless or even liberating to some people can be upsetting to others",[68] and "I am listening and willing to listen; I am learning and willing to learn."[66] After this,Wesleyan University students began to protest Handler's upcoming plannedcommencement speech at the university.[68] In March 2018, Wesleyan presidentMichael S. Roth announced that Handler had withdrawn from the appearance,[69] to be replaced byAnita Hill.[68]
Handler has published a variety of books under the nameLemony Snicket, most notably the 13 books in theUnfortunate Events series. These books are listed underLemony Snicket bibliography.
This section lists works published as Daniel Handler:
Handler also edited or contributed to the following books:
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
| A Series of Unfortunate Events |
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