Good titles are hard to find.
My talent at titling my books is middling. Years ago I wanted to call a book Dr. Lobotomy, but my editor changed it to The Lobotomist. I came up with The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, and did the same with The Lost Brothers, a poor choice. (Many people mistakenly refer to it as The Lost Boys.) Editors titled my next book Face in the Mirror, which is not bad.
For my newest book, The Case of the Autographed Corpse, which releases on October 6, the titling process was easy. One of the main figures in the book, dead since 1970, did the hard work. In my book Erle Stanley Gardner, the mystery author of Perry Mason fame who founded The Court of Last Resort in the 1940s to examine cases of wrongful conviction, joins forces with Apache medicine man Silas John Edwards to right a decades-old legal wrong. In an unpublished article, Gardner called Silas John’s wrongful 1933 murder conviction “one of the most peculiar cases that we have ever investigated…. If I were writing of this case as a work of fiction, I would call it The Case of the Autographed Corpse.”
I read this and happily accepted Gardner’s gift. Never mind that there is no autographed corpse in the narrative (instead an initialed murder weapon) and that my work is nonfiction.
Of my books’ labored subtitles, I have more stories. Maybe next month.
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
On October 15, Magers & Quinn Booksellers of Minneapolis will host me and James Mayer of the Great North Innocence Project in conversation about my new book The Case of the Autographed Corpse. The event is free but registration is recommended.
Also this month, I’m giving presentations at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, University of Texas-Southwest School of Medicine, Carleton College, and Mayo Medical School. Check out my full speaking schedule here.
After a hiatus of seven years, I’ve recently rejoined the board of the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, a wonderful home for writers and readers and the place where I began thinking of myself as a writer when I started taking classes there in the 1980s. The Loft continues to inspire me with its mission, programs, events, and great vibe.
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 U.S. Supreme Court has been locking up its own history.
What was that live-action movie with the all-dog cast about?
Fighting forest blazes has long been the work of women.
Horrible confessions are the foundation of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories.
An 18th-century strategy reveals how to diminish the power of Big Tech.
Albert Einstein observed that “nobody understands me and everybody likes me.”
Jonathan Swift predicted the rise of AI.
The Bayeux Tapestry tells secrets about its makers.
A dynamic 20th-century social worker abducted many of the children she placed in new families.
Apple sleuths discovered an ancient tree that offers a new history of fruit.
Resources
Freelance writers feel the legal chill of publishers’ contracts.
AI accounts invent fake Black history.
Nuremberg Trials translators are at last winning recognition.
After I learned that Annie Dillard fabricated the famous opening of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (“I used to have a cat, an old fighting tom…”), I could no longer read her work with as much pleasure.
“I don’t believe that life is supposed to make you feel good, or to make you feel miserable either. Life is just supposed to make you feel.” – Gloria Naylor
Housekeeping
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More next month, and thanks for looking. And you are welcome to forward Damn History in its entirety to anyone.
About me: I'm a history, crime, 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 books include The Case of the Autographed Corpse: A Medicine Man and a Mystery Writer in Pursuit of Justice; 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, 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 or for media inquiries, please contact Ann Aronson at [email protected].
Please feel free to get in touch.
