The Dan Brown Enigma

by Graham A Thomas

  To my family and friends and especially my colleague Craig Cabell for giving me the support to write this book

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Author’s Note

  Introduction by Craig Cabell

  Part One: The Early Years

  Chapter One: Just the Facts

  Chapter Two: Who is Dan Brown?

  Chapter Three: Rock Musician

  Chapter Four: One Door Closes, Another Opens

  Chapter Five: The Big Idea

  Chapter Six: Mrs Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Husband

  Chapter Seven: Digital Fortress

  Chapter Eight: Angels and Demons

  Chapter Nine: Deception Point

  Part Two: The Big Time

  Chapter Ten: The Last Hope

  Chapter Eleven: Striking it Rich

  Chapter Twelve: The Church Attacks

  Chapter Thirteen: Media Frenzy at the Old Bailey

  Chapter Fourteen: The Da Vinci Code

  Chapter Fifteen: The Wait is Over

  Chapter Sixteen: The Lost Symbol

  Chapter Seventeen: Smoke and Mirrors

  Appendix One: The Characters

  Appendix Two: The Films

  Dan Brown US/UK Bibliography by Craig Cabell

  Endnotes

  Index

  Plates

  Acknowledgements

  Copyright

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Thrillers are part of the modern psyche. The genre is a relatively new one dating back to 1915 with the publication of John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps. The story has all the essential elements of a modern thriller: an ordinary man thrown into an extraordinary situation full of tension, danger and intrigue. The hero overcomes physical danger, fear and many other obstacles in his path as he races to complete his quest and unravel the mystery that surrounds him.

  Dan Brown’s books have these same elements, which is what drew me into his stories. My thriller hero has always been Alistair MacLean, who wrote such masterpieces as Night Without End, Fear is the Key and When Eight Bells Toll. When I first came to Brown I didn’t want to read him, but his blend of fact and fiction in a modern style at rocket pace caught my attention.

  What intrigued me was his ability to blur the boundaries so well that the reader ends up believing everything on the page. It is how he takes myths that are buried deep in our collective subconscious and explodes it onto his pages that I find so interesting.

  Everyone was going crazy about The Da Vinci Code so I steadfastly refused to pick up the book. But one day I did and never looked back. The more I started researching this book, the more involved I became in Brown and his characters, plots and ideas.

  Whether the information Brown uses in his books is correct or not is not as important as the man’s story. The facts he uses can be debated time and time again and they have been. There are dozens of books claiming to decode the mysteries in Brown’s books. Are these mysteries and strange facts true? Who knows? But that’s not the point. Brown is a master storyteller who has managed to tap into our collective psyche, draw us in and blend it all together with staggering effect.

  I wanted to write this book to get to grips with the effect that his books have had on organisations like the Catholic Church and the Freemasons. That effect has been profound. The Church has gone to great lengths to refute everything that Brown claimed was a fact in The Da Vinci Code. Why did they do this?

  It is the writer’s choice to wind fact into his fiction and in some cases to dress up fiction as fact to push the story forwards. If Brown hadn’t put a Fact page at the very beginning of The Da Vinci Code, it’s likely there would have been no outcry, no debate, as there has been since its publication.

  The Dan Brown Enigma tries to unlock Brown’s methods of creating his mysteries, how he builds intricate puzzles while weaving in ancient texts, myths and legends into the stories. In a way he reminds me of Number Six from the cult Sixties TV series The Prisoner. We never really know who he is but we are hooked by his quest to escape the village and above all to find out who is really behind it.

  Brown’s quest to find information and research that forms the basis of his novels is just as addictive. How does he do it? Why does he do it? Who is he?

  Read on and enjoy the ride.

  ‘We want information.’

  ‘You won’t get it.’

  ‘By hook or by crook, we will.’

  Graham A. Thomas

  Warminster, March 2011

  INTRODUCTION

  * * *

  WORKS OF FICTION

  It was a chilly, dry morning in 2009 that I found myself at Waterstone’s the booksellers in London’s Piccadilly to attend the official UK launch of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol.

  Although the great man wasn’t there, there was still a strong media presence as devoted fans queued to get their hands on one of only 150 signed, book-plated copies of the first edition UK hardback. Each special copy had a colour flaming key pictorial plate with bold black signature – gold dust to the true fan and restricted to one copy per person.

  I spoke to The Times and did some radio sound bites, answering such questions as: why is Dan Brown so popular? What sort of person reads Dan Brown? Do you think the new novel will live up to the notoriety of The Da Vinci Code?

  I answered the questions while the fans looked on expectantly. Some smiled; others nodded their heads in staunch seriousness. At least they agreed with me, but the thing I learned from this experience was that Brown fans took his work very seriously. They believed in the threat of a Digital Fortress code, they believed in the Holy Blood line, they believed in ancient societies enduring from the Dark Ages to the present day.

  Did I?

  There is a difference between what one wishes for and what one suspects is true. And that’s where – for me and many Brown fans – Dan Brown exists. He is a storyteller of great power and works on the minds of enquiring people with his fervent imagination. When all is said and done, Dan Brown writes stories. There may be some hard facts there but there will also be some supposition, so one doesn’t really know what is the fact and what is the fiction. The resulting ‘faction’ is not a new concept. The creator of such work in modern times is Frederick Forsyth, with such key books as The Day of the Jackal and The Fourth Protocol.

  When I left Piccadilly – still before most commuters’ breakfasts – I glanced at the queue of people eager to purchase their special copy of Dan Brown’s latest novel. For them, the latest book didn’t have to be The Da Vinci Code. It did, however, have to have Robert Langdon in it, and that’s where Dan Brown will endure: through his most popular character. He had waited long enough for the hype of The Da Vinci Code to calm down before releasing the next Langdon book. The book wouldn’t be as controversial, but then Brown didn’t set out to make The Da Vinci Code controversial in the first place. The media did that. He simply told his intricate chase novel and thrilled his audience.

  With The Lost Symbol it was the Freemasons who were now under scrutiny, not the Catholic Church; but unlike the Catholic Church, the Masons didn’t respond negatively to the book, so there was no media circus and over-analysis of the text.

  In short, Brown had created a new type of faction, which initially shocked certain people but as Tony Robinson found with his excellent programmes about The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol, there’s little to get uptight about – just enjoy the story!

  This book continues to break down the mystery surrounding Dan Brown and his works. It outlines the writer’s life and works and becomes an essential companion to the half-dozen books by the American author. It has not been released during the hype of The Da Vinci Code nor on the back of the
The Lost Symbol. It sits in a space where we can soberly analyse the life and work of one of the world’s most successful writers, and I for one applaud its companionship.

  Craig Cabell

  London, March 2010

  PART ONE

  * * *

  THE EARLY YEARS

  CHAPTER ONE

  * * *

  JUST THE FACTS

  Failure was not an option. For the longest time he stared at the blank screen in front of him; around him lay the books and papers he was using for his research. He and his wife had been through them all. Now was the moment of truth: the time to start writing.

  He’d written three books so far, all well received but flops at the booksellers. Yet in his heart and his soul he knew they were good. This was what he was meant to do, wasn’t it? He’d even had his eureka moment which had showed him writing was his true calling. But they hadn’t sold. His music career in L.A. hadn’t worked out either, so now his fourth novel just had to work. The pressure was on. If this book didn’t sell then he’d be back teaching again. He knew he couldn’t face that.

  He felt the pressure keenly and he felt the failure deeply as well. It was now or never. He and his wife had travelled to Europe twice and investigated the Louvre museum in Paris as thoroughly as they could. He’d read countless books on religion and the Sacred Feminine. He stared at the keys knowing that they would not move by themselves. He looked at the headset that he used for dictating and which freed him to move around his little cottage. Now was not the time for that technology. Now he had to start typing.

  The cursor blinked. He touched a key on the keyboard and the letter appeared on the screen. What was his big idea for this book? Though it wasn’t yet completely clear he knew it would come to him. This one just had to work.

  And indeed it did. The book in question was The Da Vinci Code and the man behind it was Daniel Gerhard Brown – Dan Brown.

  Brown has said he is a very private person, so to know the man we need to look at how he writes, because there must be something special about a man who has probably sold more books than any other writer.

  How does he do it? Is it the fact that he hangs upside down in his anti-gravity boots two or three times a day? ‘You’re hanging upside down and you’re seeing the world through a different lens and I think you think differently,’ Brown said. ‘I may be crazy but I’ve solved a bunch of good problems upside down.’

  To spend as much time as Brown does on researching his books – The Lost Symbol took six years – he must have an abiding passion in what he is researching. ‘If you are researching secret societies, abstruse science or all things ancient, it could take a lot of extra time,’ Brown remarked. ‘All things arcane interest me.’

  But before we delve deeper let’s look at some basic facts about the man. He was born on 22 June 1964, in Exeter, New Hampshire in the United States. He is the eldest of three children and his father, Richard G. Brown, taught mathematics until he retired in 1982. Both his mother and father are musicians and singers, having served as church choirmasters and his mother as a church organist in the Episcopalian faith in which he grew up.

  As a child, his home life was filled with puzzles, mysteries and secrets where codes and ciphers, created by his parents, were used to set up intricate challenges. As a boy he would spend many happy hours working out anagrams and completing difficult crossword puzzles. On family holidays he and his two younger siblings would go on treasure hunts devised by his father. At Christmas, instead of finding gifts under the tree, the children would take part in a treasure hunt for gifts throughout the house and sometimes through the town. Indeed, Chapter 23 of The Da Vinci Code was inspired by one of these childhood treasure hunts.

  Brown’s high school years were spent at Phillips Exeter Academy, which gave him a real grounding for his life. To show how much this school meant to him, Brown made his main character, Robert Langdon, a graduate of Phillips Exeter.

  After high school Brown went to Amherst College, where he studied art history and writing among other subjects. Here he was a student of visiting novelist Alan Lelchuk, sang in the Amherst Glee Club and was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity. In 1985 he attended the University of Seville in Spain, where he was enrolled as an art history student. The following year he graduated from Amherst.

  Once he’d left college Brown attempted a career in music. Using synthesisers he first recorded and produced a children’s cassette, Synth Animals, that featured synthesised animal noises. It sold a few hundred copies.

  Deciding to move on to the adult market, he formed his own record company and produced his first album, Perspective, but that too sold only a few hundred copies. Undaunted, Brown moved to Los Angeles in 1987 to pursue a career in music. His goal was to be a singer-songwriter and he taught classes at Beverly Hills Preparatory School to support himself while he did so.

  His life changed when he joined the National Academy of Songwriters. He attended many different events held by the Academy and at one of them he met Blythe Newlon. Twelve years older than Brown, she was the Director of Artist Development for the Academy at the time.

  The two quickly formed a bond and she helped to promote Brown’s musical projects. Although it was not officially part of her job, she set up promotional events, wrote and sent out press releases and put him in contact with key people who could help him in his musical career. While this was going on the pair formed a relationship they kept quiet from their friends and associates. It only came to light when Brown moved back to New Hampshire and Blythe went with him.

  The aspiring singer-songwriter released his first CD, Dan Brown, in 1993 and followed that up with Angels & Demons the following year. Now his wife, Blythe was thanked in the liner notes for being his co-producer, co-writer ‘significant other and therapist’.

  Back home in New Hampshire, Brown took up teaching English at his alma mater, Phillips Exeter, and also taught Spanish at Lincoln Akerman School to sixth, seventh and eighth graders.

  But all this time Dan Brown had been writing. ‘In school I read all the classics through high school and university, and as a kid it was the Hardy Boys, but I never read any adult thrillers,’ he says. ‘I assumed adults read classics. But when I went on holiday to Tahiti I found a copy of Sydney Sheldon’s Doomsday Conspiracy and thought, “Wow, this is fast-paced and fun and interesting, and maybe I can do something like that.’”

  Thus inspired, Brown began work on Digital Fortress, a thriller set in Spain and Maryland. The book was published in 1998 but before that he and his wife co-wrote the humour book 187 Men to Avoid: A Guide for the Romantically Frustrated Woman. It was under the pseudonym Danielle Brown but the copyright is attributed to Dan Brown.

  In 1996 Brown gave up teaching to become a full-time writer. He wrote two more thrillers, Deception Point and Angels & Demons, before hitting the big time with The Da Vinci Code.

  These are the basic facts. Now let’s dig a little deeper.

  CHAPTER TWO

  * * *

  WHO IS DAN BROWN?

  Some of us find our miracles in the pages of Holy Scripture and some of us find our miracles in the pages of Scientific American.

  DAN BROWN

  Dan Brown is an enigma, a very private man. Little is known about him and what makes him tick, other than what he himself has revealed. He is fascinated by puzzles, treasure hunts and all things arcane, which is apt since piecing together the facts of his life is like going on a treasure hunt for clues that reveal a little bit more about him.

  Brown’s father, Richard G. Brown, taught mathematics at Phillips Exeter Academy and wrote a bestselling series of textbooks – the first was entitled Advanced Mathematics: Precalculus with Discrete Mathematics and Data Analysis, which is still considered an important tool for teaching advanced mathematics. Indeed, he was honoured by President George H. W. Bush in 1989 when he received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching.

  Both Brown’s parents were
creative. Both have been church choirmasters and members of a Symphony Chorus that toured the US and Europe. His mother, Connie, has a master’s degree in sacred music and was a professional church organist, while his father sings and acts in musical theatre. ‘This love of music, like many things my parents loved, was inherited by me. When I was at Amherst I was very interested in music composition and creative writing. I also loved languages.’

  The Brown family lived on campus and young Dan – the eldest of three children, with brother Gregory and sister Valerie – grew up in an atmosphere of academia. Brown, however, had a very interesting childhood because he did not spend his time staring at the TV. The family didn’t have one. ‘I had a dog and we lived up in the White Mountains in the summer and I had no friends up there and I would go and play hide-and-seek with my dog and probably had some imaginary friends. They have since left and I spend my life now with a lot of other imaginary friends.’[1]

  His life was also filled with secrets, puzzles and treasure hunts. Codes and ciphers were the order of the day as they tied into the mathematics, music and languages that were part of the work of his parents. He would spend hours working on crosswords or trying to devise anagrams. On holidays, the three children would go on treasure hunts created by their father to keep them occupied. As already stated, at Christmas, rather than just ripping open their presents in the usual way, the Brown kids would be foraging throughout the house and outside, following treasure maps drawn up by their father to find out where their gifts were hidden. The clues would include limericks or mathematical puzzles leading the kids to the next clue. ‘And so, for me, at a young age, treasure hunts were always exciting,’ Brown said.