Richard Leigh: 64, Writer Who Challenged "Da Vinci Code," Is Dead
Richard Leigh, a writer who filed an unsuccessful lawsuit over the novel “The Da Vinci Code,” died on Nov. 21 in London. He was 64.
The causes were related to a heart ailment, said an agent at the Jonathan Clowes Agency, which represents him.
Mr. Leigh was co-author of “The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail,” a work of speculative nonfiction that proposed that Jesus Christ fathered a child and that the bloodline continues to this day. A best seller on its release in 1982, the book gained new readers after Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code,” which explores similar themes, was released.
Mr. Leigh and another co-author, Michael Baigent, sued Mr. Brown’s publisher, Random House, saying that “The Da Vinci Code” “appropriated the architecture” of their book. A third “Holy Blood” co-author, Henry Lincoln, did not join the lawsuit.
In April 2006, Peter Smith, a High Court judge, threw out the claim, saying the ideas in question were too general to be protected by copyright.
Read entire article at APril D. DeConic in the NYT
The causes were related to a heart ailment, said an agent at the Jonathan Clowes Agency, which represents him.
Mr. Leigh was co-author of “The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail,” a work of speculative nonfiction that proposed that Jesus Christ fathered a child and that the bloodline continues to this day. A best seller on its release in 1982, the book gained new readers after Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code,” which explores similar themes, was released.
Mr. Leigh and another co-author, Michael Baigent, sued Mr. Brown’s publisher, Random House, saying that “The Da Vinci Code” “appropriated the architecture” of their book. A third “Holy Blood” co-author, Henry Lincoln, did not join the lawsuit.
In April 2006, Peter Smith, a High Court judge, threw out the claim, saying the ideas in question were too general to be protected by copyright.