Who Is Lemony Snicket?

Daniel Handler, who has on occasion slyly identified himself as Lemony Snicket’s “representative,” recently took time from a tour promoting his new book, We Are Pirates, to talk to The Santa Barbara Independent. He’d just flown in from wintry New York City and was back in his unseasonably warm hometown of San Francisco. The author of A Series of Unfortunate Events, as Lemony Snicket — and numerous grown-up books as Daniel Handler — was gracious and impressively cheerful that morning, considering most of us would be using jet lag as an excuse to lie about and groan.

Are book tours as grueling as they sound? I actually like book tours. That’s not to say that every moment sitting in an airport is an unmitigated pleasure, but I work all day in my office, and it’s nice to get out in the world. I’ve been to the U.K., Australia, and Italy — the only country where I didn’t speak the language. I tried talking to a room of children, but that’s hard even when you do speak the language.

We Are Pirates is not your first book to feature a disaffected teenager. Were you a disaffected teenager yourself? I felt hemmed in and had glimpses of an exciting life that I was being denied. Of course I blamed my parents. I thought I was an adult. All youths think they’re ready to have an adult life.