Incubator escapee wiki

Daniel Handler

Article Discussion
Revision as of 02:13, 21 May 2025 by imported>ForsythiaJo (removed Category:Jewish feminists; added Category:Jewish American feminists using HotCat)
(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Template:Short description Template:For Template:Use mdy dates

Template:Infobox writer Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970) is an American author, musician, screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is best known for his children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events and All the Wrong Questions, published under the pen name Lemony Snicket.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The former was adapted into a film in 2004, as well as a 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 titled The Basic Eight, was rejected by many publishers for its dark subject matter.

Handler has also played the accordion in several bands, and appeared on the album 69 Love Songs by indie pop band The Magnetic Fields.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

LifeEdit

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.<ref name=beweeweht>Template:Cite news</ref> His father was a Jewish refugee from Germany in 1939. His mother is distantly related to British writer Hugh Walpole.<ref name=emrkoweeht>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=higi>Template:Cite news</ref> 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."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was awarded the 1992 Connecticut Student Poet Prize, which he has said he won by ripping off Elizabeth Bishop.<ref>"Happy, Snappy, Sappy" by Daniel Handler</ref> He is an alumnus of the San Francisco Boys Chorus.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Handler has been a voracious reader since childhood. The first book he bought as a child was The Blue Aspic by Edward Gorey,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> of whom he is a fan.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He enjoyed the writings of William Maxwell<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Roald Dahl.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

He is married to Lisa Brown, an illustrator he met in college.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They have a child, born in 2003.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They live in an Edwardian house in San Francisco.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Handler has expressed ambivalence about his wealth and the expectations it creates. He often donates money to charitable causes.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Handler and his wife have also donated $1,000,000 to Planned Parenthood,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and he has supported the Occupy Wall Street movement.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Handler describes himself as a secular humanist and an atheist.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He describes himself as having developed a "feminist consciousness" while in college.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Professional workEdit

BooksEdit

Six of Handler's major works have been published under his name.<ref name="sfchron_dirty">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Watch Your Mouth, his second novel, was completed before publication of The Basic Eight. It follows a more operatic theme, complete with stage directions and various acts. Watch Your MouthTemplate:'s second half replaces the opera troupe with the form of a 12-step recovery program, linguistically undergone by the protagonist.Template:Citation needed In April 2005, Handler published Adverbs, a collection of short stories that he says are "about love." It was followed in 2011 by Why We Broke Up, which received a 2012 Michael L. Printz honor award.<ref>Ala.org</ref> Handler's 2015 novel We Are Pirates<ref>Columbiajournal.org Template:Webarchive</ref> is about a modern-age pirate who "wants to be an old-fashioned kind of pirate."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> His most recent novel, All the Dirty Parts, was published in 2017<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and "takes the blunt and constant presence of a male teen's sexuality and considers it with utmost seriousness".<ref name="sfchron_dirty" />

Handler served as a judge for the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship in 2012.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2016, he founded Per Diem Press, a poetry competition for young writers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He awarded $1,000 to three winners and published a chapbook of their work.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Lemony SnicketEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

File:Daniel Handler at Book People.PNG
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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref>"Tortuous Tales". A Series of Unfortunate Events. n.p. Retrieved 2012-04-16.</ref> Handler narrated the audiobooks for three books in the series before handing back the narrating job to the original narrator, Tim Curry.Template:Citation needed

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He has also written other children's novels under the Snicket name, including companion books to his two Snicket series,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and children's books such as The Composer is Dead<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

MusicEdit

Template:BLP sources section

File:Daniel Handler singing 2006-10-28.jpg
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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and "The Gibbons Girl", by Chris Ewen's The Hidden Variable.

TheaterEdit

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The satirical play follows the intertwining lives of three characters and is inspired by the grief Handler felt after his father's death.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Film and televisionEdit

Handler has also had some success in film. He produced the screenplay for Rick, based on the Verdi opera Rigoletto,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> as well as Kill the Poor, based on the novel by Joel Rose.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Handler was involved in the screenwriting process for the film Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events but was ultimately removed from the project. After writing eight drafts of the script for Sonnenfeld,<ref name="Mason">Template:Cite news</ref> he was replaced by Robert Gordon in May 2003.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Handler approved of the changes that were made to his original screenplay.<ref name="old">Template:Cite news</ref> "I was offered credit on the film for screenwriting by the Writers 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."<ref name="Mason" />

Handler submitted a commentary track for the DVD version alongside director Brad 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Handler was a writer on the Netflix series A Series of Unfortunate Events, also contributing lyrics to the show's theme song, which varies each episode.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The show has won several accolades, including a Peabody Award in 2017 for excellence in children's and youth programming.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

ControversiesEdit

Remark about raceEdit

At the November 2014 National Book Awards ceremony, Handler made a controversial remark after author Jacqueline Woodson was presented with an award for Brown Girl Dreaming. During the ceremony, he said that Woodson was allergic to watermelon, a reference to the racist watermelon stereotype. His comments were immediately criticized;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Handler apologized and donated $10,000 to We Need Diverse Books, and promised to match donations up to $100,000.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In a New York Times op-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".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Allegations of inappropriate sexual commentsEdit

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!"<ref name="vulture metoo">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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 larger Me Too movement.<ref name="vulture metoo"/><ref name="psmag metoo">Template:Cite news</ref>

Handler apologized for his behavior, saying, "It has never been my wish to insult any of my professional colleagues",<ref name="vulture metoo"/> "my sense of humor has not been for everyone",<ref name="psmag metoo"/> "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",<ref name="wp metoo"/> and "I am listening and willing to listen; I am learning and willing to learn."<ref name="vulture metoo"/> After this, Wesleyan University students began to protest Handler's upcoming planned commencement speech at the university.<ref name="wp metoo">Template:Cite news</ref> In March 2018, Wesleyan president Michael S. Roth announced that Handler had withdrawn from the appearance,<ref name="huff metoo">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> to be replaced by Anita Hill.<ref name="wp metoo"/>

BibliographyEdit

Handler has published a variety of books under the name Lemony Snicket, most notably the 13 books in the Unfortunate Events series. These books are listed under Lemony Snicket bibliography.

This section lists works published as Daniel Handler:

Handler also edited or contributed to the following books:

DiscographyEdit

FilmographyEdit

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

Template:Sister project Template:Sister project 

 | name/{{#if:{{#invoke:ustring|match|1=1274516|2=^nm}}
   | Template:Trim/
   | nm1274516/
   }}
 | {{#if: {{#property:P345}}
   | name/Template:First word/
   | find?q=%7B%7B%23if%3A+%0A++++++%7C+%7B%7B%7Bname%7D%7D%7D%0A++++++%7C+%5B%5B%3ATemplate%3APAGENAMEBASE%5D%5D%0A++++++%7D%7D&s=nm
   }}
 }}{{#if: 1274516  {{#property:P345}} | {{#switch: 
 | award | awards = awards Awards for | biography | bio = bio Biography for
 }}}} {{#if: 
 | {{{name}}}
 | Template:PAGENAMEBASE
 }}] at IMDb{{#if: 1274516{{#property:P345}}
 | Template:EditAtWikidata
 | Template:Main other

}}{{#switch:{{#invoke:string2|matchAny|^nm.........|^nm.......|nm|.........|source=1274516|plain=false}} 

 | 1 | 3 =  Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning
 | 4 = Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning

}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:IMDb name with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|showblankpositional=1| 1 | 2 | id | name | section }}

Template:Daniel Handler Template:Snicket Template:Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Main Title Theme – TV Show/Limited Series Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://zalansite.site/mediawiki/index.php?title=Daniel_Handler&oldid=52497"