About the Author Thomas R. Beyer Jr. earned a B.S. in Russian from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in Slavic Literatures from the University of Kansas. For the past 35 years,he has been a Professor of Russian at Middlebury College in Vermont. He is the author of more than a dozen books to learn Russian and has executed several translations of the Russian writer Andrei Bely. Considered an expert on Russian writers in emigration in Germany and the United States, Professor Beyer has lectured extensively in Russia, Germany, and the United States. For the past few years he has offered seminars on the works of Dan Brown, designed to permit students and readers to separate fact from fiction. About the Publisher In the 1930s, Manuel H. Barron opened a bookstore in Brooklyn, New York.  People from the community asked Mr. Barron about books that might be available to help their children study for the New York State Regents exams. After realizing there wasn't anything available, Mr. Barron's created his own study guides. 80 years later, Barron's has helped millions of people prepare for their next step.