Ever since I read The Da Vinci Code I have been intrigued by the “facts” that Dan Brown presents in his works. After reading his earlier works, I decided to offer a course at Middlebury College for first year students, designed to introduce them to the work of a scholar and the life of the mind via Dan Brown’s “facts.” History shows that some works of fiction have been misunderstood, misconstrued, and, in a few instances, misused (perhaps most notoriously The Protocols of the Elders of Zion). I believe that one challenge of education in the twenty-first century will be to make sense of the flood of information, much of it on the Internet, and to separate fact from fiction. Brown’s novel offered a tantalizing and entertaining entry into the world of research and evaluating information. In the fall of 2004 students in my course, inspired by Betsy Eble’s Depth and Details—A Reader’s Guide to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, prepared and edited a site intended to explore and explain all those aspects of the novel and published electronically, The Keys to The Da Vinci Code.
In the spring of 2005 I began along with a few others to anticipate Dan Brown’s next novel. Long before the actual announcement of the September 15, 2009 publication date, speculation among a handful of writers and researchers centered on a few hints. The inside dustcover commentary for The Da Vinci Code (2003) contained a series of letters in bold that when pieced together read: “Is there no help for the widow’s son.” That expression has been identified as a distress call used by Freemasons and was also the subject of 1973 talk by Dr. Reed C. Durham, Jr., claiming that Joseph Smith, the founding father of the Latter Day Saint Movement (Mormons), tried to utter this cry for help just before he was murdered. [www.cephasministry.com/mormon_is_there_no_help.html]
Brown himself stated on one occasion that he was working on another novel involving his hero, Robert Langdon, that would be “set deep inside … the enigmatic brotherhood of the Masons.” (The quote, an answer to a question, was on the original danbrown.com page that has since been removed.) The working title, The Solomon Key, emerged in 2004: “the title, which will be The Solomon Key, a nugget Mr. Brown’s publisher, Stephen Rubin, let slip during a lunch yesterday with reporters who cover the book industry”[www.nytimes.com/2004/10/28/books/28brow.html]. This title found its way into several books that attempted to predict the contents of the forthcoming novel, originally expected in 2005.
Hoping to have another subject for a course, I too began reading the available literature. There were three noteworthy efforts. First there was W. Frederick Zimmerman’s “The Solomon Key” and Beyond: Digital Fortress, Angels & Demons, Deception Point, The Da Vinci Code, and more .. . (2005). Zimmerman’s book, as the title indicates, looked back more than forward.
David A. Shugarts and Dan Burstein published Secrets of the Widow’s Son: The Mysteries Surrounding the Sequel to The Da Vinci Code (2005). Burstein had already edited a highly successful Secrets of the Code: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code (2004) and Secrets of Angels & Demons: The Unauthorized Guide to the Bestselling Novel, later reprinted as Inside Angels & Demons. David Shugarts was a contributor to both, and he specializes in closely documenting “facts” and revealing the fiction behind them. In the book Secrets of the Widows Son, Shugarts examined the Masons and connections with “The Founding Fathers,” the physical geography of Washington, D.C., the history of its construction as the country’s capital, and the codes and ciphers that abound in Brown’s novels.
Finally there was a tripartite effort by Greg Taylor, who reinvented titles, if not content, based on the supposed title of the novel. His first book was entitled Da Vinci in America; Unlocking the Secrets of Dan Brown’s Solomon Key (2004). This was renamed as simply The Guide to Dan Brown’s The Solomon Key (2005). Most recently it emerged as an electronic book as The Guide to Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol (Kindle Edition, 2009). Taylor has by far devoted more time and energy than anyone to The Solomon Key a.k.a The Lost Symbol for the past five years. He maintains an active web presence both at www.daily grail.com and at www.cryptex.com.
One of the more recent followers of the Brown phenomenon and one of the best analyses has been done by Mark E. Koltko-Rivera, author of Freemasonry: An Introduction (2007). In the beginning stages of “tweets,” clues on Twitter that mirrored those on Facebook containing ciphers, clues, and images in search of decoding, Koltko-Rivera offered serious, thoughtful, and well-documented solutions to several dozen. Then he reconsidered and on July 13, 2009, concerned that others might use or appropriate his research, he stopped posting to Twitter. Recently he has reappeared in a blog that comments not on everything but on much. His answers are well worth a visit: lostsymboltweets.blogspot.com.
Based on some of my own early research I traveled to Washington, D.C., on several occasions for the past four years to do work in the Library of Congress, visit the Capitol and the Washington Monument, and the House of the Temple in Washington, as well as the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria. I was treated to wonderful personal tours and immersed myself in the writings about Freemasonry. I also did extensive study of the literature surrounding the founding of Washington, Masonic imagery, the Mormons, the works of Sir Francis Bacon, Manly Hall, Albert Pike, and dozens of others.
In the fall of 2006, assuming the novel would be done, I offered a course on “The Solomon Key.” Unfortunately Dan Brown did not produce, and there was no novel. But previous cues and my own research led students to do serious work on several themes that are relevant to the novel today. These were published on the Internet as The Keys to The Solomon Key and covered topics such as The Egyptian Influence in Washington, D.C., Masonic symbols in Washington, D.C., Benjamin Franklin, Francis Bacon, and Thomas Jefferson. Currently I am teaching a seminar on Angels & Demons, in which students are annotating the novel as a wiki.
Like others who have followed this novel closely, I was delighted to read the prepublication announcement and have participated in the Facebook and Twitter clue searches. I read the novel immediately along with my students, to whom I am grateful for identifying many of the keys that have become a part of my book. They raised many questions that deserved closer examination and, in the case of the dustcover, detected some names and numbers that helped unveil some of the novel’s keys. I also began an online guide to the novel, which I hope return to.
This book has been in the making for four years. I have devoured much of the literature on topics predicted, such as Masonry and Washington, D.C. I have explored the Internet extensively, visiting literally thousands of sites. Like almost all those who have been surprised in part, I have spent time acquainting myself with Noetics, The Intuition Experiment, and the Smithsonian Museum Support Center.
I am a scholar, but this is not a scholarly book. It is intended for the general reader who wishes to know something more about the topics and issues raised in The Lost Symbol. I have noted in my pages some of the books and authors that have been most helpful to me. I have also provided 133 Internet links that the readers can follow for additional information on each of the 33 Keys. I have specifically not filled the work with the scholarly citation that would include all the books, articles, and Internet sites I have consulted. Nor have I routinely cited some electronic sources for quick reference that anyone would normally consult. These include search engines, The Oxford English Dictionary, the Encyclopedia Britannica, including the 1911 edition, The Catholic Encyclopedia, the Internet Sacred Text Archive, and Wikipedia and YouTube. Remember that “‘Google’ is not a synonym for ‘research’” (98). But it sure is a great place to start.
This book would never have appeared were it not for Grace Freedson, who kept looking for someone to find it. Esther Margolis of Newmarket Press believed and inspired me to believe that it could be done in time to satisfy readers already searching for answers. Her staff has worked miracles to design and illustrate these 33 Keys. My students never doubted and their reading of the novel, their own search for Ancient Wisdom, supported my efforts. Finally, my lovely wife Dorothea, my gift from God, Carina, my beloved, Stefanie, my crown, and Alexandra, my defender, all endured and sustained my efforts and found their way into the square of the dedication.
To my readers I extend my hand in invitation to share your comments and suggestions at tom.beyer@middlebury.edu.
THE KEYS TO THE DA VINCI CODE
community.middlebury.edu/~beyer/dvc
THE KEYS TO THE SOLOMON KEY
community.middlebury.edu/~beyer/sk/index.htm
THE KEYS TO ANGELS & DEMONS
keysangelsdemons.wetpaint.com
KEYS TO THE LOST SYMBOL
keystolostsymbol.wetpaint.com
POSTERS, LOGOS, AND MORE ON THE LOST SYMBOL
knopfdoubleday.com/tag/the-lost-symbol