A still from The Shop on Main Street (1965), produced by František “Frank” Daniel
Of the many writing teachers and mentors I’ve learned from, I gained the most from František “Frank” Daniel, whose one hundredth birthday passed last month. (He died in 1996.) I met Frank when I was a first-year student at Carleton College and he was beginning three years as a visiting scholar.
But Frank was not a typical scholar. He wanted to share beer in class (administrators said no) and warned students that without placing sitzfleisch (German/Yiddish for ass meat) in the writer’s chair, they’d never write anything. He had been influential in the Czech film industry as a screenwriter and producer. One of the films he produced, The Shop on Main Street, won an Oscar in 1966 as best foreign language film. He immigrated to the U.S. when the Soviet Bloc invaded Czechoslovakia. After several years as dean of the school of the American Film Institute, he landed at Carleton.
I am not a screenwriter and don’t want to be one, but I registered to take Screenwriting I, II, and III from Frank. The opportunity was too huge to pass up. To Frank, teaching screenplay writing was the same as teaching storytelling and story structure. As the coursework grew more advanced, the size of these classes shrank, and in the end only three of us sat with Frank for the third term.
He is much of the reason why I write narrative nonfiction today. He’s also why I call myself a history writer instead of a historian – for me, it’s all about the factual story, not the history. I still draw from his wisdom, and I will not forget his wheezy laugh.
In Damn History you'll find, as usual, recommendations on good and popularly accessible historical reading, with tips on writing and updates on my own work.
Follow me on X at @Jack_ElHai, on Bluesky at @jackelhai.bsky.social, and on Threads at @jackelhai1.
Contact me by email at [email protected]
Personal Notes
Here are new podcast episodes in which I discuss my book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist and its adaptation into the movie Nuremberg: History Flakes: The Berlin History Podcast, The Michael Shermer Show, Mind Dive, Review It Yourself, Groks Science Radio Show and Podcast, Super Psyched with Dr. Adam Dorsay, Uncomfortable Conversations, The Southwark Cathedral Podcast, Dark Finds Podcast, DoctorPodcasts || Cykiert Files, and What Matters Most.
On May 11, I will give a presentation on The Nazi and the Psychiatrist and Nuremberg at the College of Physicians in Philadelphia. Later in the month, I’m speaking to the International Criminal Court Bar Association.
For my recommendations of popular-history books, search X, Bluesky, or Threads for #popularhistory.
Recent Popular History from All Over
You may find some of these articles behind a paywall if you’ve exceeded the publisher’s allowance of free views.
The Altai people of western Siberia performed complex facial restoration surgeries 2,500 years ago.
In more than 100 articles, a forgotten Sports Illustrated writer of the 1960s named Virginia Kraft achieved a vast collection of firsts.
In 1794, a surgeon stole Shakespeare’s skull. Also, historians have located the exact site of Shakespeare’s house in London.
American soapbox speakers have a loud history.
Andrew Lloyd Webber explains why he’s writing a new musical about the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911.
Some people with disabilities supported eugenics and forced sterilization during the 1930s.
A major league baseball player of the 1940s became an early example of “stolen valor.”
The laugh of Civil War soldier Margaret Cathrine Murphy gave her away as a woman.
After 50 years on Texas’ death row, a man saw his murder conviction overturned.
Reformers battled anatomists to protect urban graveyards in 19th-century Britain.
A writer covered her grandfather’s masterly jewel heist in Los Angeles.
Brazil’s capital city arose from nothing, at high social cost.
Resources
Trump’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence has removed from its online reading room all documents previously posted there under the Freedom of Information Act.
In other news of this administration, the CIA has stopped compiling its useful World Factbook.
A historian details how his research affects his emotions.
Does writing, as a profession, no longer exist?
Today’s most productive historian is an invented person.
This writer wants you to save the semicolon.
Sophie Elmhirst wrote a popular-history book that reads like fiction.
Here’s great advice on writing an obituary.
“An actually useful writing cliché: An autobiography is the story of your life. A memoir is a story from your life.” – Jacqueline Salmon
Housekeeping
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About me: I'm a history and science writer. I've contributed hundreds of articles to such publications as Smithsonian, The Atlantic, The Washington Post Magazine, Wired, Scientific American, Discover, GQ, Longreads and many others.
My newest book, The Case of the Autographed Corpse: A Medicine Man and a Mystery Writer in Pursuit of Justice, will be published by Pegasus Books on October 6, 2026.
My other books include The Lost Brothers: A Family’s Decades-Long Search, The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness, Non-Stop: A Turbulent History of Northwest Airlines, and The Nazi and the Psychiatrist: Hermann Goering, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WW2.
I frequently give talks and lead workshops on the topics of my books as well as on the craft of nonfiction writing. To book me for your event, please contact Jayme Boucher, Hachette Speakers Bureau, at [email protected]. For media outreach and other presentation opportunities, contact Ann Aronson at [email protected].
Please feel free to get in touch.
