Isn't Brown An Author Of Fiction? And A Damn Good Author At That.....

BTW I will buy The Lost Symbol When it comes out in paperback.

Author Dan Brown goes from frying pan to fire

First he enraged the Vatican with Da Vinci Code. Now he takes on the secretive Freemasons in The Lost Symbol. Are they worried? Not yet.
September 15, 2009
Cathal Kelly Feature Writer

First things first. The Masons want you to know that Dan Brown is not a Mason.

"Everybody thinks he's been in touch with us and that he's a Mason and all that. He isn't. Maybe he wants to be," Mansour Hatefi, grand secretary of the Grand Masonic Lodge of the District of Columbia in Washington, said yesterday.

This morning, hundreds of thousands of Masons across North America will be deciding if Dan Brown is ever welcome to join.

Brown made his reputation figuratively kicking the Catholic Church and its secret societies in The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. His newest novel, The Lost Symbol, out today, is based in Washington and puts the fraternal society of Freemasons in the pop-historical crosshairs.

MORE

Some Freemasons in history:

Charles Lindbergh Transoceanic flyer had Masonic insignia emblazoned on his airplane, The Spirit of St. Louis

Tim Horton Leafs star and coffee king belonged to Toronto lodge

Voltaire The voice of the Enlightenment joined the Freemasons only a month before his death at the urging of long-time Mason Benjamin Franklin

Mel Blanc Voiced cartoon characters Bugs, Daffy, Porky. Member of Mid Day Lodge No. 188 in Oregon

John Glenn Pilot, astronaut, senator, Mason

Clark Gable Screen star belonged to the Beverly Hills lodge
VOICES

Dan Brown's earlier books focused on the Catholic Church. What some religious authorities said:

THE DA VINCI CODE

Cormac Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor bought it at an airport. "People obviously enjoyed it or it wouldn't be selling millions," he told BBC London news in 2004. "My advice to people is to enjoy the book, but don't take it as real in terms of facts about the Catholic Church or about anything, really."

Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, as Archbishop of Genoa (now the Vatican's secretary of state), called the book a "cocktail of inventions."

Brian Finnerty believes that there's much wrong with the presentation of Opus Dei in the book. "You won't find any albino monks walking around this building," the numerary told the Star during a tour of Opus Dei's New York City office in 2006.

ANGELS AND DEMONS

Reviewers at L'Osservatore Romano, which covers the Pope's public activities, said in 2009: "(It's) a video game that first of all sparks curiosity and is also, maybe, a bit of fun."

Rt. Rev. Malcolm McMahon, the Bishop of Nottingham, said the book is "mischievous to stir up this kind of anti-Catholic sentiment."

– Compiled by Peggy Mackenzie, Star Library