Dan Brown was born in Exeter, New Hampshire as Daniel Gerhard Brown. He has a younger brother, Gregory, who was born in 1975 and a sister, Valerie, born in 1968. He enrolled at Exeter’s public school and studied until the ninth grade.
His father, Richard G Brown was a mathematics teacher and writer of textbooks in Phillips Exeter Academy. James Agee, a famous American poet, also graduated from the same school. His father taught on the campus from 1968 to 1997.
His mother, Constance, was a trainee at a church and a student of sacred music. Dan was raised as an Episcopalian. He keeps on describing his religious evolution in several interviews. From a very small age, Brown was interested in puzzles. He liked mathematics, music and languages. As a child, he solved a lot of crossword puzzles and anagrams.
Brown and his sibling, used to participate in treasure hunts, which their father used to organize on birthdays and holidays. After graduation from Phillips Exeter, he attended Amherst College, where the famous basketball player Ben Cherington also studied. He even played squash and sang in the Amherst Glee club when he was in the college. He graduated from Amherst in 1986.
Besides writing, he was highly interested in songwriting and pop singing as well. After his graduation from Amherst, he took part in the musical career. He created effects with Synthesizer and he produced a children’s cassette all by himself, SynthAnimals. Later, he also joined the National Academy of Songwriters. He then participated in many of its events.
When Brown read Sidney Sheldon’s novel The Doomsday Conspiracy, he became inspired to become a thriller writer. He then started writing books and side by side he was teaching in school as well. Later in 1996, he quit teaching and became a full-time writer. He is married to his wife Blythe Brown, who usually does most of her husband’s book’s promotion.
The books he wrote initially didn’t receive much success but his fourth novel, The Da Vinci Code, became one of his best-selling novels. The novel went to the top of ‘New York Times Best Seller’ list within three weeks of its release in 2003. It sold over 81 million copies worldwide as of 2009. This helped to push sales of Brown’s earlier books as well.
According to The Times, The Da Vinci Code alone earned an estimated sales of $250 million. He has also involved in several charity works, like to Philips Exeter Academy, he along with his brother donated $2.2 million in honor of their father. The donation was to provide high-tech computers and equipment for needy students. Brown and his wife were also the strong support of the "New Hampshire Charitable Foundation."
Later, in 2016, he again donated US$337,000 to a Library in Amsterdam for digitization of ancient books. As of 2014, his yearly earning was $28 million and in the year 2015, it was $13 million. Hence, looking at his donations, we can guess he makes well. As of 2017, his estimated net worth is about $178 million.