Daniel Handler

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 titled The Basic Eight, was rejected by many publishers for its dark subject matter. Handler has also played the accordion in several bands, and he appeared on the indie pop band The Magnetic Fields' album 69 Love Songs.

Daniel Handler studied at Lowell High School, Wesleyan University and Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature. The recorded working language is English. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are fairy tale. Edgar Allan Poe, Dino Buzzati and Franz Kafka are recorded as an influence. Residence is recorded at San Francisco. Works named in the authority record are A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Basic Eight, Watch Your Mouth and Adverbs. Distinctions recorded are Charlotte Zolotow Award.

• Name — Daniel Handler • Pen Name — Lemony Snicket • Born — 28 February 1970 • Birthplace — San Francisco, California, U.S. • Occupation — * Author • musician • screenwriter • television writer • television producer • Children — 1 • 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

Handler was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Sandra Handler (née Walpole), a retired City College of San Francisco dean, and Louis Handler, an accountant. His father was a Jewish refugee from Germany in 1939. His mother is distantly related to British writer Hugh Walpole. Of his early religious upbringing, Handler said, "I had a fairly standard Reform Jewish upbringing, I guess, in terms of the religious side of it." He has a younger sister, Rebecca Handler. He attended Commodore Sloat Elementary, Herbert Hoover Middle School, and Lowell High School. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1992. He was awarded the 1992 Connecticut Student Poet Prize, which he has said he won by ripping off Elizabeth Bishop. He is an alumnus of the San Francisco Boys Chorus. Handler has been a voracious reader since childhood. The first book he bought as a child was The Blue Aspic by Edward Gorey, of whom he is a fan. He enjoyed the writings of William Maxwell and Roald Dahl. He is married to Lisa Brown, an illustrator he met in college. They have a child, born in 2003. They live in an Edwardian house in San Francisco. Handler has expressed ambivalence about his wealth and the expectations it creates. He often donates money to charitable causes. Handler and his wife have also donated $1,000,000 to Planned Parenthood, and he has supported the Occupy Wall Street movement. Handler describes himself as a secular humanist and "pretty much" an atheist. He describes himself as having developed a "feminist consciousness" while in college.

• Illustration — Handler at a book signing in 2006 Handler wrote the bestselling series of 13 novels A Series of Unfortunate Events under the Snicket pseudonym from 1999 to 2006. 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. Handler narrated the audiobooks for three books in the series before handing back the narrating job to the original narrator, Tim Curry. From 2012 to 2015, Handler published the four-part series All 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. He has also written other children's novels under the Snicket name, including companion books to his two Snicket series, and children's books such as The Composer is Dead and The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming.

• Illustration — Handler playing and singing at a reading of The End in 2006 Handler was in two bands after college, the Edith Head Trio and Tzamboni, but his music received little attention until 69 Love Songs, a three-album set by The Magnetic Fields on which he played accordion. In the box set of the project, Handler interviews band leader Stephin Merritt about the project. He also appears in Kerthy Fix's and Gail O'Hara's 2009 documentary Strange Powers, about Merritt and the Magnetic Fields. Handler has played accordion in several other Merritt projects, including The 6ths and The Gothic Archies, the last of which provided songs for the A Series of Unfortunate Events audiobooks. In 2006, a Gothic Archies album was released with all 13 songs from the 13 A Series of Unfortunate Events audiobooks, along with two bonus songs. In the audio commentary on the film adaptation Lemony 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 by One Ring Zero, and "The Gibbons Girl", by Chris Ewen's The Hidden Variable.

In 2017, Handler wrote the play Imaginary Comforts, and The Story of The Ghost of The Dead Rabbit, which was performed at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. The satirical play follows the intertwining lives of three characters and is inspired by the grief Handler felt after his father's death.

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 she said 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!" 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; and calling a stranger a "hot blonde" and making a "uni-ball" double entendre in front of young children. The incident occurred during the larger Me Too movement. Handler apologized for his behavior, saying, "It has never been my wish to insult any of my professional colleagues"; "my sense of humor has not been for everyone"; "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"; and "I am listening and willing to listen; I am learning and willing to learn." Wesleyan University students began to protest Handler's planned commencement speech at the university; in March 2018, Handler withdrew from the appearance, and was replaced by Anita Hill.

• Kill the Poor (2003) – screenplay • Rick (2003) – writer • Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) – based on the books The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room and The Wide Window • A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017–2019) – based on the book series, writer, executive producer, title theme, original song lyrics