Last night GalleyCat prowled the floor of the glitzy opening-night party for Dan Brown’s new book, “The Lost Symbol.” Held at the cathedral-esque Gotham Hall, it was the most extravagant book party the publishing world will see for years–complete with a replica White House cake, giant wall projections, and wait staff dressed in powder-puff wigs.
Sadly cameras were discouraged at the elegant party, so we cut together some of our favorite Freemason propaganda and vintage Washington DC footage into that video essay about Brown’s follow-up to his uber-bestseller, “The Da Vinci Code.” “The sales department has sent out five million copies,” the author noted last night. “Let’s hope we never see them again.”
Depending on your literary tastes, today is the eagerly-awaited and bitterly-dreaded release date for “The Lost Symbol,” the climax of six years of writing, publishing drama, and mounting hype. Most importantly, today is the day that GalleyCat reader jjochwat, James Fitzgerald, and William Weathersby independently dubbed “Publishing’s Brown Out” in GalleyCat’s Nickname Dan Brown’s Release Date contest.