The Backstory
Above is the only* paper copy left of this 15 year old e-mail. When we were thirteen, my best friend, A (or Ms. H), and I were engrossed in the The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. Devouring every book as they came out. In the summer of 2000, we were bored and debating whether the story being weaved into our imaginations was fact or fiction. The internet wasn't as helpful as it is now, so we flipped open to the first few pages where books are known to keep their credentials and found something more valuable to us than the answer to our original curiosity… Lemony Snicket's e-mail address. A wrote to him first and she received a copy and pasted reply from his representative, Daniel Handler. We did NOT want to hear from Mr. Handler, but from Lemony Snicket himself. (Maybe someone is already finding this funny…) So, I wrote to Mr. Snicket to ask my own questions and voice my disappointment that he did not personally answer his fan letter from A. We hoped that his representative would see how serious we were and get the e-mail to Mr. Snicket. Unfortunately, my sharpest words and snarkiest thoughts are lost in my father's old e-mail account, but it must have been bad enough that I felt compelled to apologize for my "cold and hard attitude." The next day I received the same copy and pasted reply from Daniel Handler. We were disappointed, but not completely discouraged. (Discouraged is a word which here means having lost confidence or enthusiasm; disheartened.) Since we had nothing left to lose, I added another thought and a thank you to my previous e-mail. We clicked the send button with all our fingers crossed as we waited with bated breath for the reply. Which man would answer? Perhaps third time is the charm, because the next day our wishes were granted when a reply from our favorite author, Lemony Snicket, was waiting in the inbox. We read his response over and over. Astonished by our luck when the characters he wrote about experienced so much misfortune. I read the rest of The Series of Unfortunate Events, but cannot recommend it. (Read the warning on the books from the author himself for more details. I cannot bring myself to remember such sad events.) As I grew out of the YA section, I found out that Daniel Handler and Lemony Snicket were one and the same. The Basic Eight is one of my favorite books and my family reads The Screaming Latke every Christmas.**
A few years ago, I found these e-mails tucked into my copy of The Beatrice Letters and laughed when I realized that Daniel Handler (the official representative of Lemony Snicket) is Lemony Snicket. Days later these pages were swept away with other important mementos. No where to be found, but never forgotten. The other night, I was looking for a postcard in a box labeled "Paper Memories" and found these e-mails instead. After scanning them, I returned the pages to The Beatrice Letters so I won't misplace them again.
While the first couple responses were surely form letters automatically sent to fan e-mails, it totally went over my head as a kid that I was requesting that the author let me speak to his pen name. Mr. Snicket, if you are out there… Thank for your response and advice. Especially for taking my tenacity in stride. I hope I didn't say anything too mean. Rereading the e-mails as an adult, it warmed my heart to see you respond to your persistent fan. It truly made my summer when you wrote back to us. If one day I have children, it will pain me to learn that they have stumbled upon my copies of The Series of Unfortunate Events and learned the fate of the Baudelaire Siblings. Is there a particular lockbox that you know would fit all 13 volumes and The Beatrice Letters? Any help would be welcome.
~Ms. L
*To be fair the only one I know of existing.
**Part of my mother's lifetime Christmas Book Tradition. She gives my brother and me a book every Christmas Eve. I think she was particularly impressed with her gifting when she found The Screaming Latke.
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