Jack El-Hai

Breaking news: I have recently published two longform narrative articles that break new ground in popular history.

The first, "The Case of the Autographed Corpse," appears in Smithsonian magazine and tells the true tale of an unusual partnership between Erle Stanley Gardner, author of the Perry Mason mystery novels, and Silas John Edwards, a White Mountain Apache medicine man. In 1933 Edwards was wrongfully convicted of the murder of his wife on the Fort Apache reservation, and twenty years later the two men worked together to achieve Edwards' release from prison.

The other article, "Comrades, We've Been Screwed!," describes an important and little-known intersection of African-American and Russian history. Published by The Sunday Long Read, it tells how the lives of 22 young Black Americans changed after they traveled to the USSR in 1932 to star in a Soviet film about racism in the US. The group's members – including Langston Hughes, Dorothy West, and Louise Thompson – were deeply influenced by the unexpected events of their stay in Russia and went on to distinguished careers in literature, social activism, civil rights, the law, and other fields.

I write books, essays, and articles on history, medicine, science, and crime. In addition to my newest book The Lost Brothers, I have written The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, Non-Stop: A Turbulent History of Northwest Airlines, and The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness. My articles have appeared in The Atlantic, GQ, Wired, Scientific American Mind, Topic, Longreads, The Washington Post Magazine, and many other publications.

Several of my nonfiction stories have been optioned for the screen and stage. I frequently give talks and lead workshops on the topics of my books as well as on the craft of nonfiction writing.