The Bad Beginning

Lemony Snicket was born before you were, and is likely to die before you as well. His family has roots in a part of the country which is now underwater, and his childhood was spent in the relative splendor of the Snicket Villa which has since become a factory, a fortress and a pharmacy and is now, alas, someone else’s villa.

Brett Helquist was born in Ganado, Arizona, and grew up in Orem, Utah. Soon after Mr Helquist’s own dreams of becoming a pirate were sunk, he became an illustrator and took on the dangerous work of illustrating the New York Times bestselling Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. He lives in Brooklyn, where he keeps a very old and mysterious map marked with an ‘X’.