Daniel James Brown

Daniel James Brown (born 1951) is an American author of narrative nonfiction books. Brown was born in Berkeley, California. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He attended Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English at the University of California at Berkeley and a Master of Arts degree from the University of California at Los Angeles Brown taught writing at San Jose State University and Stanford University before becoming a technical writer and editor. He now writes narrative nonfiction full-time.

Brown's debut book, Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894 (2006), traces the personal stories and social, economic, and environmental causes of the Great Hinckley Fire of September 1, 1894, which burned an area of up to 250,000 acres (1,000 km2; 390 sq mi), including the town of Hinckley, Minnesota. The fire killed hundreds, including Brown's great-grandfather.

Brown's second book, The Indifferent Stars Above The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride (2009), traces the footsteps of Sarah Graves, a young bride who left her home in Illinois in the spring of 1846, bound for California. Sarah was one of a handful of the ill-fated Donner Party members who attempted to hike out of the Sierra Nevada to save herself and her family.

Brown's third book, The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Olympics (2013), celebrates the 1936 U.S. men's Olympic eight-oar rowing team—nine working-class boys rowing for the University of Washington. It is also the story of one young man in particular, Joe Rantz. MGM and George Clooney's production company have purchased the rights to adapt the book for a feature film to be directed by George Clooney.

Brown's fourth book, Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II (2021), covers the World War II patriotism and courage of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a special Japanese American Army unit that overcame brutal odds in Europe; their families, incarcerated behind barbed wire in the American West due to the American internment policy; and a young man who refused to surrender his constitutional rights, even if it meant imprisonment.