"By attempting to rigidly classify ethereal concepts like faith, we end up debating semantics to the point where we entirely miss the obvious - that is, that we are all trying to decipher life's big mysteries, and we're each followning our own paths of enlightenment. "

Former Teacher Makes It Big With Best-Selling Novel

Dan Brown is a fiction author best-known for his best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code.

Brown's father, Richard Brown, taught high school mathematics at a boarding school from 1962 until 1997 when he retired. The boarding school, Phillips Exeter Academy, required teachers to live on campus, so Brown and his siblings were raised on the grounds of the Christian boarding school. Brown's mother, Connie Brown, was a professional musician.

After college, Brown began a music career, self-producing children's music. Later he formed a record company called Dalliance, where he produced Perspective, a self-published CD. He moved to Hollywood to further his career as a singer and pianist. During this time he taught Spanish in a Beverly Hills Preparatory School. In 1993, Brown released his self-titled CD Dan Brown, which included songs "976-Love" and "If you believe in Love."

In 1993 Brown returned to his home town to become an English teacher at Phillips Exeter. In 1996, however, Brown ended his teaching career to become a writer, and published Digital Fortress in 1998. A month later, he and his wife released The Bald Book. Less than 10,000 copies of these books were published. His forth novel, The Da Vinci Code, was released in 2003 and an instant best-seller. By 2005, 25 million hard-back copies had been sold globally. The book made Brown one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of that year.

Brown's novels have been translated into more than 40 languages. in 2006 The Da Vinci Code had been adapted into a Columbia Pictures film, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks. The film received poor reviews.

Brown's fifth novel, The Solomon Key is due for release in 2007.