Who Is Daniel Handler?

Daniel Handler, most commonly referred to as Lemony Snicket, was born on February 28 in the year 1970 to his parents who were a college dean and an accountant. He wanted to be known as Jiminy Cricket, but when he was asked what his name was, Lemony snicket came out and that stayed his name. He wanted to be called this because he thought it was “exactly the kind of overly moralistic, cheerful narrator who I despise.” (Lemony Snicket, The Awful Authors 1). He was born in San Francisco. Handler married a woman by the name of Lisa Brown whom he had one son named Otto Handler and no daughters. Handler is an author and a poet most commonly known for his books written for children called “The Series of Unfortunate events” consisting of thirteen books
total. During Snicket’s childhood he hated books who had a happy ending. Handler loved to read dark fiction books because he loved the suspense and darkness. Lemony Snicket liked to view things mostly for the darkness in them. He always saw things for what they were and he didn’t sugar coat anything for himself because he believed it would only be bad for him in the end. Because he grew up that way it lead him to incorporate those types of things in his books. One example is the way that Handler views night. Some may view it as a beautiful spectacular to view with a loved one, but Handler believes that “All nights are dark days, because night is simply a badly lit version of day.” ( Daniel Handler Deseret News 1). Many people might wonder why did Daniel Handler change his name, or what caused him to find the darkness in things so amusing? Why does he write books for children, when most of his work is hard to understand and it’s cruel towards the characters in his book? Many children growing up like to view everything in their path as something positive or happy. They see a puppy and want to have one of their own, no think of it as a stray dog who will never have a loving family. What caused Snicket’s mind to work differently from other kids? He believed that there was always a bad side to everything. Daniel Handler had a thought in his mind that it didn’t matter if you were good if you weren’t going to be rewarded in the end anyways. Notable Biographies showed us what Handler believed about the good guys and he stated "What I think has rankled some people about the books is that they show that if you're good, you're not necessarily rewarded." He wrote books about the bad people and what would happen to the people around them, because he was tired of the original and the happy endings. He wanted people to face the truth and only the truth which is why at the beginning of every single one of his books that was part of “The Series of Unfortunate Events” he addresses the reader and he notifies them that the books they are about to read aren’t happy books and that they are not gonna have a happy ending. He wants to shoot out the truth straightforward to the reader so that they don’t get their hopes up and because he wants people who like the dark humor like him to read these books and connect to him and what he is feeling or what he felt when he wrote these books. By him connecting to the readers he felt that he can connect to his books better as well and it can lead him to write better books for his readers and that they would be more intrigued in reading his books not only because they liked the way he wrote or because of the stories he incorporated in his books, but because they can connect on an emotional level with the author as well and this makes a connection that makes reading more entertaining and great for not only the readers, but for the author as well. Lemony Snicket likes to continue mystery throughout his whole life, whether he is writing books or not. By having mystery in the real world and having all these stories come to life with him, it is easier to contribute to the story more easily and it is easy to make all his books more descriptive. He likes to add as much detail as possible to his stories so that his readers can understand the plot more clearly. He especially likes to do this when writing his children’s books because he understands that kids may need a little more detail in order for them to understand the story in full overview on what the author is trying to explain. Daniel Handler knows that kids when reading a book do have a curious mind and they do wonder who wrote the book that they are reading and he knows that when they meet this person they are expecting a magical person who will be able to answer any question that they have. Lemony Snicket wrote a whole series of children’s books and he wants to keep his readers happy which is why he doesn;t show up as Lemony Snicket who is an old man compared to the children who can’t relate to them. Children have an incredible memory and they would remember that the person who wrote some of their favorite books wasn’t who they expected it to be. Many children continuously wait in line for hours to meet Lemony Snicket, “Snicket, however, continually misses his public appearances, due to some unforeseen disaster, and Handler must step in and inform the masses of children who have come to see Snicket that they will have to settle for Snicket's representative—Handler” (Edward Gorey, Lemony (Daniel Handler) Snicket Biography 1) When children finally believe that they are about to see one of their idols, someone to whom they’ve been looking up to for a while now and instead they get some man who claims is his representative, they get majorly disappointed and they get extremely confused. After a while, or after time has passed the kids then think about it again and realize that they are still in a mystery. Lemony Snicket has continued the mystery for his readers. He has brought what they onced believed was a fiction story into the real world. This is also another way that Lemony Snicket has found a way to connect to his readers. Lemony Snicket got the chance to be with his fans and the people who read his books, without “actually” being with them. Everyone has an inspiration for everything that they do. For many people it is people who are close to them or work with them. Some people don’t have an inspiration but they have people who were there to push them and make them reach their goals and limits to the best they can be. In Lemony Snicket’s case he had to very successful parents.Sandra Handler Day and Lou Handler the parents of Daniel Handler and grandparents to Otto Handler were an accountant and University Dean. With Parents who are successful and went to college, Handler believed he had an obligation to do the same. After many years of being in school and studying hard Handler finally made it to a university. Handler attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut where he had constant blackouts and during one of these blackouts that happened to occur during Handler’s Chaucer class he fell into a woman’s arms whom he happened to marry. If it weren’t for Snicket to have a lifestyle like the one he had being isolated in his house on a hill with successful parents, maybe Lemony Snicket wouldn’t be the successful writer that he is today and maybe he wouldn’t have met his wife whom he truly loves and may also be an inspiration to the books that he writes for his fans and critics “handler claims that his wife appealed to him partly because of her resemblance to the daughter in the Addams Family” (Helena Echlin Dark Star 1) which connects back to the claim that Daniel Handler loves dark stories and he loves suspense. Because he likes dark mysteries and suspense this is why he lets the kids continue to believe that Lemony Snicket really wasn't there and that he really did send his assistant to notify the children. It makes the children believe that since Snicket isn’t there then it’s because he is out there looking for more mysteries to write about and entertain his fans, when in reality he is actually seeing his fans and getting inspiration from them to write more books for the people who were there expecting to see him. Lemony Snicket loves to see that there is people there who care about his books and are really into the person who wrote them. He wants to try his best to make all of them happy. A question that many of Lemony Snicket’s fans ask is “How did you get the idea to write a series in the noir mystery style” (Regan McMahon 5 questions for Lemony Snicket 1). Many ask this because they love “The Series of Unfortunate Events” and they wonder what gave him the inspiration to write these books. Because Handler grew up loving books like Frankenstein which was a dark mystery, Handler wanted to write books similar to those of his favorite authors when he grew up. He wanted children and even adults to find his books entertaining just like he found those books that he read as a child entertaining and suspenseful. When you leave a reader in suspense, they want to keep reading and reading. Daniel Handler not only was educating his audience by getting them to keep reading but he was entertaining them more and more every book that he wrote. Children’s minds are big and they have a lot of space to hold a lot of information in. Snicket knows that he has to make his books as best as they can be in order to leave a positive imprint on his readers so that when they grow up they can still remember what great stories Lemony Snicket wrote for them and maybe possibly also write stories of their own for the next generation and keep the chain of education and mystery going. Lemony Snicket has left an imprint on many of his audiences and is still leaving a mark on his audiences now and what Snicket wants is for his books and stories to continue making a mark on all young readers or anyone who decides to read his books. What Snicket wants is to have a legacy in his name. Another question that has been asked to Lemony Snicket is “Do you hope to inspire readers to become detectives?” (Regan McMahon 5 questions for Lemony Snicket).
Many ask this question because they get a sense of Lemony Snicket wanting to be a detective himself. Since he loves working with dark mysteries with are usually connected to murder or cases like those, they believe that he wants the children or people who read his books to feel the same detective feeling that he gets when he is writing the books for his audience. When he was posed that question he corresponded with “All readers are detectives. Why else keep turning pages?” ( Daniel Handler 5 questions for Lemony Snicket 1) Snicket loves to make his readers feel like they are being detectives which is why he writes all these mysteries and why he loves writing them. He loves his readers to try and solve the mysteries that he is posing for them through his books. It is also why he doesn't show up at his meet and greets with his fans as Lemony Snicket and as his “assistant” Daniel Handler, because he wishes to continue the mystery for his fans. Lemony Snicket is the type of author to be inspirational. He may wound up being the inspiration for a child to want to become an author or a detective like the question they asked. Lemony feels that children should have their own stories in their mind when being detectives. They can have their own ideas and answers as to why some certain things are happening. Snicket has had a major impact on all of his fans. He has not only had an impact on the children who read his books while he is Lemony Snicket, but also he has had an impact on adults when he wrote his latest two books by the name of Daniel Handler which is his birth given name. Handler has matured a lot since he first started writing and which is why now he is writing as himself, not for children, but for people who correspond to the same age group as him so he can connect easier to them and they can too
understand him on a much clearer level.