My first book was Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote, and I think it will delight history lovers and book lovers alike. (In The Wall Street Journal, Thomas Mallon called it “one of the best books on the American presidency to appear in recent years.”)
Below are some of my favorite journalism stories I’ve written.
My favorite publication, as both a reader and a writer, was the old Deadspin, which lives on as the equally great Defector. I remain proud of two series I wrote for the editors there. The first focused on my neighbor, an octogenarian basketball lover named Iris Clawson:
- “My 84-Year-Old Neighbor Has The Only Good NBA Takes.”
- “I Took My 84-Year-Old Neighbor With The Only Good NBA Takes To A Pacers Game.”
- “It Never Ends Like It Should.”
The second focused on a youth baseball player named Jericho Scott:
- “The Ballad Of Jericho Scott.”
- “The Boy Who Was ‘Too Good’ To Play Youth Baseball Never Got To Grow Up.”
I like writing about books and ideas, especially when I can profile authors:
- “The Mystery Buffs in the White House.” New York Times Book Review.
- “Reading Sad Books is Good for Your Kids.” New York Times Book Review.
- “How Ohio Shaped Toni Morrison’s Fiction.” Cincinnati Magazine.
- “The Professor’s Swerve: A Profile of Stephen Greenblatt.” Boston Globe. (pdf)
I also like writing about politics, especially at the state level:
- “Indiana Is Weird.” FiveThirtyEight.
- “How UNH Turned A Quiet Benefactor Into A Football-Marketing Prop.” Deadspin.
Craig Fehrman 
Enjoyed Author in Chief book very much. Fantastic Scholarship. It answered a lot of questions I had about presidential writing. One question, there was no commentary on Herbert Hoovers Presidential memoirs? Why? Granted they were dry as dust, but am I am curious. I hope you reply.
Thanks for reading, David! I studied Hoover, especially his letters to his publisher that are now at the NYPL. (I’m pretty sure I put a couple snippets from that in a footnote.) But in the end I decided not to write at length about him because my top priority is always to tell a good story. Hoover is fascinating, but I felt like Coolidge and FDR were better.
If you want to know more about Hoover as a writer, I recommend this essay: https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2008/fall/hoover-wilson.html