By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

With the 150th anniversary of “The Gettysburg Address” and the 50th anniversary of the last presidential assassination this week, both Abraham Lincoln & John F. Kennedy (see more pg. 6) will be forever linked by the ironies of history.

Both men held a love for the written word. The celebration of the written word continues with the 30th Anniversary of the Miami Book Fair International, held Nov. 17-24.

Dan Brown, author of books like The DaVinci Code and Inferno, opened the festival Sunday evening with a lecture about how family life inspired him to becomeaninternationalbest-selling author. His dad was a math teacher, his mother a church organist. Filled with self deprecating humor, he also talked about working with Tom Hanks and Ron Howard on the set of the movie The DaVinci Code at the Louvre Museum, home of Leonardo DaVinci’s “Mona Lisa.” (See more, pg14)

With the production of cinematic classics like The Maltese Falcon, and Treasure of the Sierra Madre, director John Huston also carried a love for the written word. Beginning his career as a screenwriter, Huston’s coterie of houseguests included authors like Carson McCullers, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck, who influenced his daughter, Oscar-winning actress Anjelica Huston.

Anjelica Huston’s body of work stands on its own with Prizzi’s Honor (directed by her father) earning her an academy award, and with movie roles as diverse as The Big Year, The Royal Tenenbaums andTheGrifters. For young people, she is best known as Morticia Addams in The Addams Family films. Recently, she added credibility to the TV show Smash with her role as Eileen Rand.

Huston will be discussing her memoir, “A Story Lately Told, Coming of Age in Ireland, London and New York,” on Friday evening. Besides acting and growing up with an eccentric father, Anjelica will discuss being a teenager and living in London during the swinging ‘60s, her forays into modeling and her earlier attempts at acting.

The beauty of the Miami Book Fair International is the opportunity for unknown authors to be discovered. It is covered by major news networks, and C-Span spends the weekend in their book mobile. This is why Cinema Dave will be setting up his first booth tomorrow in Section D – Writer’sRowwithmytwobooks, “The Adventures of Cinema Dave in the Florida Motion Picture World” and “Davy Jones & the Heart of Darkness.” With each book sale, customers will receive an artifact from “the Cave of Cinema Dave.”

By Rachel Galvin

For this year, which marks the 30^th anniversary, the Miami Book Fair International chose best-selling author Dan Brown to kick off the event. The performance by the New World School of the Arts Symphony Orchestra, Flamenco dancers and remarks by Miami Dade College President Dr. Eduardo J. Padron and his Royal Highness, the Prince of Asturias, Crown Prince of Spain was hard to follow, but Brown managed to do it with style. With wit and candor, humility, generosity and curiosity, he speculated on the dichotomy of religion and science, the schism and the commingling of the two.

His fascination with these subjects seem to stem from his upbringing. In front of his parents in the audience, he sheepishly told tales of his childhood, admitting he was self-editing a bit as he went along, mentioning they had not seen him speak before. Brown was raised by a math teacher and a church organist. While his mom conducted the church choir looking the part of SNL’s “the church lady,” his dad stood in line at the local pizza joint with his Texas Instrument calculator determining the most economical way to buy a pie. Home life was filled with reciting hymns in wilderness Sunday services held on canoes tied together drifting in the river and dinner time was math lessons about geometric shapes that could be made utilizing vegetables. His father also introduced him to the enormity of space and presented questions on infinity.

It wasn’t until he was an adolescent that he began to question religion and science. How could both be correct? The Bible said the world was created in seven days. In school, he learned about the Big Bang. The Bible talked about Adam and Eve. In school, he was learning about fossils. He asked his priest which world view was correct. His priest said, “Nice boys don’t ask.” But that answer did not satisfy him.

He began gravitating to science. However, he said that the more people study science, “the mushier it gets,” with margins of error, imaginary numbers and unanswerable questions. He realized that science and religion are actually “partners… two different languages telling the same story.”

In his stories, he explores science and religion, as well as real life situations and locations, interjecting fictional characters into the mix. It begins, he says, with location first. As a reader of only non-fiction, he enjoys dealing with real life circumstances primarily. His books **DaVinci Code,** **Inferno,** **Angels & Demons,** **Lost Symbol** and others take the reader on a suspense-filled journey through exotic locations. Brown also discussed the making of the movies based on his novels.

This prolific author is the first of about 400 authors who will be presenting at the Book Fair, which runs through Nov. 24. To get more information about the fair, visit www.miamibookfair.com.