Dan Brown

Dan Brown was born on June 22nd, 1964 and raised in Exeter, New Hampshire. He raised on the campus of Philips Exeter Academy, where his father taught, and he was the eldest of three children. Brown's parents were musical, both having been church choir masters, and his mother serving as the church organist. This probably explained why he had a love for music.

At a young age, he also became very interested in puzzles and mysteries, which is the basis to all of his books. Brown used to spend hours and days making diagrams and trying to solve them. Then for special occasions, like birthdays and holidays, his gift could only be found by using a secret map. Sometimes, he would even have to enter the city and get clues there!

After graduating from Philips Exeter Academy, he continued his studies at Amherst College, where he majored in English and Spanish. He later graduated in 1986, and he tried to pursue a musical career. He started off by making a CD, which sold a few hundred copies, then he decided to make his own record company: Dalliance. He later moved to Hollywood to continue his music career, and this is where he met his future wife, Blythe Newlon. At the time, she was working for the National Academy of Songwriters, and she was the Academy's Director of Artist Development. She went out of her way to promote Brown's projects, and later when Brown moved back to New Hampshire, Blythe accompanied him. They got married in 1997.

He did not love write too much, until one holiday in Tahiti. It was here that Brown read "The Doomsday Conspiracy," which inspired him to write thrillers. While in Tahiti, he also started to write his first book: "Digital Fortress."It was finally published in 1998, but it had very little success. After publishing this, he continued on by writing two more books: "Deception Point" and "Angels and Demons." These books also did not do too well, each selling around 10,000 in their first printings. His next book though, "The Da Vinci Code" became an instant bestseller, and it rose to the top of The New York Times Best Seller List in its first week. He even became one of the top 100 most influential people of the year for Time's Magazine in 2004! After "The Da Vinci Code," he wrote "The Lost Symbol" which I am currently reading. He said that he plans on writing a total of 12 novels, so he still has more to give. In 2006, he even had a movie made about "The Da Vinci Code."

Brown currently resides in New Hampshire where he is married to Blythe Brown. He is still writing novels to this day.

More info:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC6OdkwBIic

Sources:
http://images.hollywood.com/site/dan_brown.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Brown
http://srikanthad.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/dan-brown.jpg
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/files/original/time100_dan_brown.jpg