Looking for info on author Dean F.V. Duvall

Cafe Society
1

Back in the mid-80’s I used to get these free booklets about making money and such. They were interesting and some of the ideas they explored seemed like they would work. But I never bought any of the other things the company was selling.

The author of these books was Dean F.V. Duvall. I believe the name of his company was DAX, which I think was also the name of a character in some mystery novels he wrote.

Recently I saw one of his books online. But darn if I can find out anything about Duvall. I even checked the Library of Congress. He’s listed but no biography, DOB, date of death, etc…

Any other sources I should check?

2

My first thought on something like this might be genealogy sources or newspaper archives. It’s a decently uncommon name, so may at least turn up something.

3

I did some research with some databases I subscribe to:

  1. To make sure we start from the origin of the Dean F.V. DuVall you are talking about, I tracked a registered trademark to him from 1977: “Dax Money-Maker Confidential Newsletter”, Serial number 73130036

  2. I found old images of some of his published books, some of his early books were with a different imprint, but by the mid-80s he appeared to be publishing under his own imprint “DuVall Press Financial Publications.”

  3. I traced a business registration with this name to Williamston, Michigan.

  4. With that information I found local newspaper articles spanning from the early 1980s to the early 1990s about a Dean F.V. DuVall of Williamston, which I will assume is the same person.

  5. One article in which he won a local art competition in 1992 fixed his age at 54 years at that time, meaning a birth date of around ~1938. (26 Jun 1992 Lansing State Journal)

  6. Another article noted a divorce from Bonnie in 1982 (1 Aug 1982 Battle Creek Enquirer.)

  7. Another article noted registering a business Jenifer Davis Advertising Agency, 920 W. Grand River, Williamston (14 May 1990 Lansing State Journal.)

I don’t see anything else that comes quickly, but with this information it is probably possible to delve much deeper if you were so inclined.

I’ll note I turned up another Dean DuVall who died in 2017 but in Columbiana, OH–and with a listed birth year of 1927, so I suspect probably a different person. There was also another Dean F.V. DuVall who enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1996 in Tampa, FL–I would be shocked given that unique name if he wasn’t a relative, but probably a son or grandson.

4

Hey, thanks.

5

Here’s what he ends his emails with. He hasn’t sent out an email since April 25, which is unusual. He kept writing that he didn’t have long to live, and he had issued a request to family that no obituary be published. I don’t know if he’s still alive, but he was as of April. There might be some hype in this:

Since February 14, 1962, ‘DAX’ has been the sobriquet of Dean Francis Valentine Du Vall,Sr., a British/French-American, born in the states on Valentine’s day, 1940.
At age 4, he taught himself how to read and write, then memorized the definition, spelling and pronunciation of the then-400,000 words in the Webster dictionary. Soon after, when the average adult American IQ was a mere 75, he was discovered to have an incredible IQ of 160, plus an eidetic memory, by famed Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Yung. In 2018, at age 78, out of curiosity to ascertain whether his advanced age had lessened his IQ number, he took both the Stanford-Binet and Hoeflin’s Ultra IQ test and learned that now, his official IQ is either 194 or 199. As he says, “Take your pick!” His 1st book, a novelette, “The Wilson Twins Mystery,” was published when he was just 7 years old. In his 8-decade career, he has written and published 75 International bestsellers, now, all out of print, some of which are sought-after collector items that fetch significant sums on the secondary bibliophile market.

One title, “$100,000.00 In 90 Days!” in the late 1970s, established a world record for the most copies sold for the entire 20th century in his basic genre, Wealth-Generating/Self-Enrichment. From his then-world headquarters, DAX International, ltd., in Hong Kong, 100 million copies were sold. For decades, he was also, the publisher of several highly popular, hard copy, monthly periodicals including, DAX MONEY-MAKER CONFIDENTIAL NEWSLETTER, DU VALL REPORTS and later, PERSONAL SUCCESS - THE NEWSLETTER.

In his 40s, he traveled the world, conducting all-day seminars on the topics of writing, marketing, publishing and entrepreneurship. Tens of thousands of DAX-DOERS, as his worldwide devotees are called, learned how to become wealthy from his influence. In his 50s, with his primary childhood-stated life goal of becoming a world-acclaimed author having been firmly established for 3 decades, he addressed other long-held aspirations. Under just the surname, duVall, during a 3-year flourish, he produced 200 abstract expressionist paintings, 170 of which were quickly acquired by stateside celebrity collectors and investors, plus museums in Asia. His 30 personal favorites were held back and later formed the nucleus of a private, by-invitation-only museum, LA MAISON DES ARTISTES. On May 9, 2009, at the age of 69, under the persona of ‘The Elderly DAX’ (“Funny Stuff For Grown-Ups” ) he performed a live, 2-hour, stage act at the venerable, refurbished Riviera Theatre, which was video-taped and produced as a DVD that raised $1million, U. S. for a charity that feeds hungry children.