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The Devil in the White City (2003)

by Erik Larson

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
22,003699178 (4)1 / 999
History. Sociology. True Crime. Nonfiction. HTML:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ? The true tale of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and the cunning serial killer who used the magic and majesty of the fair to lure his victims to their death.
??Relentlessly fuses history and entertainment to give this nonfiction book the dramatic effect of a novel .... It doesn??t hurt that this truth is stranger than fiction.? ??The New York Times
Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction.

Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America??s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair??s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country??s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his ??World??s Fair Hotel? just west of the fairgrounds??a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium. 
Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake.
The Devil in the White City draws the reader into the enchantment of the Guilded Age, made all the more appealing by a supporting cast of real-life characters, including Buffalo Bill, Theodore Dreiser, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and others. Erik Larson??s gifts as a storyteller are magnificently displayed in this rich narrative of the master builder, the killer, and the g
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» See also 999 mentions

English (692)  Danish (2)  French (1)  Italian (1)  All languages (696)
Showing 1-5 of 692 (next | show all)
It's like browsing through the catalogs in the library, or the web, you never know what intersting & surprising facts might turn up ( )
  cspiwak | Mar 6, 2024 |
This was good, although the reason it didn't get a 4-star rating was because it was anti-climatic. I would have liked to read a little more about the reactions of the families of all the girls they knew Holmes had killed, and/or read some of the letters written about missing family members who went to the World's Fair. There was no inclusion of Burnham's view of Holmes or any awareness of what went on during that time, though Larson alludes to the fact that Burnham did know or had occasion to comment on the murders. Larson is a great writer, but the end felt rushed--he could have left out several things that seemed to drag on about the fair and included more of Holmes' atrocities to make this an equal accounting. I thought, by the title, that the book would be more about Holmes than the Fair, but that is not the case at all. It was more about the Chicago World's Fair than anything else. ( )
  BrandyWinn | Feb 2, 2024 |
Excellent NF about the 1892-3 Chicago Worlds Fair and a serial killer that did most of his gruesome business at the same time and in close proximity to the tair.
  derailer | Jan 25, 2024 |
Like the black-and-white photos that bear images of the 1893 World's Fair, Eric Larson's account of the events leading up to, during, and after the fair stand in sharp contrast to each, and in an assortment of charcoals and grays. On one hand, garbed in the blackest of blacks, is a mass-murdering devil, and on the other, radiant in white, it the White City, which fleetingly existed between May 1 and October 30, 1893, which was brought into being by a cast of characters whose personalities, egos, talents, power, and vision came in a wide range of shades and sizes. Larson provides readers with just enough intimate detail from the lives of the men and women associated with the fair to balance the larger-than-life qualities of the event itself, which included an array of spectacles, including a ghastly fire and a tornado which, while leaving the Ferris wheel generally undisturbed, took out a good deal of glass, a roof, and the plumes on the birds at the Fair's ostrich farm.

My only criticism of the book would be that it should have included more photos, and a map of the fair grounds. In their absence, I supplemented my reading with the following Internet resources:

Map: http://www.explorechicago.org/city/en/neighborhoods/jackson_park__msi.html
Article from Harper’s in 1943: http://www.harpers.org/archive/1943/12/0020617
Trailer for documentary film on Holmes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yI-9I3plA0&feature=player_embedded
1895 Chicago Trib article about Holmes’ Castle: http://www.fold3.com/image/#216160526
( )
  maryelisa | Jan 16, 2024 |
I love history, through fiction/fantasy is my preferred genre I do love biographies and history books and always have. This book however, was a challenge to read.

The good - it was an extremely accurate account of the events surrounding the Chicago World Fair, which is an interesting topic in and of itself in history. If you are an architect or have tremendous knowledge or interest in architecture this book is for you.

The bad -

Unless you are into reading very dry, very detailed historical books this is not for you. Unless you are interested in finding out exactly what a bunch of rich people had for dinner during the chicago world fair and every single event they attended, then this book is not for you. Unless you have a fiery passion and extensive knowledge of architecture, this book is not for you.

Every single shred of information that the author was able to find was put into this book, it doesn't matter how small or how uninteresting it was.

In the books defense I started reading thinking it was a historical fiction, just a very historically accurate one, but if so then the author has the smallest imagination I've ever had the displeasure of encountering. So perhaps my mindset was not the best, but I can assure you that it is dry.

I found myself hoping that the serial killer would kill someone just so something interesting would happen - it drove me to wish for a truly terrible thing to have happened to a real person just so I could escape the intense boredom of the books pages. Honestly, if I hadn't been reading this for a book club, I don't believe I could have finished it. ( )
  carolovestoread | Jan 14, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 692 (next | show all)
Mr. Larson has written a dynamic, enveloping book filled with haunting, closely annotated information. And it doesn't hurt that this truth really is stranger than fiction.
 

» Add other authors (14 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Erik Larsonprimary authorall editionscalculated
Brick, ScottNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Goldwyn, TonyNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Tézenas, HubertTraductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood.
Daniel H. Burnham

Director of Works

World's Columbian Exposition, 1893
I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than a poet can help the inspiration to sing.
Dr. H. H. Holmes

Confession

1896
Dedication
To Chris, Kristen, Lauren, and Erin,

for making it all worthwhile

—and to Molly, whose lust for socks

kept us all on our toes
First words
The date was April 14, 1912, a sinister day in maritime history, but of course the man in suite 63–65, shelter deck C, did not yet know it.
Quotations
"Suddenly New York and St. Louis wanted the fair. Washington laid claim to the honor on the grounds it was the center of government, New York because it was the center of everything. No one cared what St. Louis thought, although the city got a wink for pluck."
"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood"
"They are blue. Great murderers, like great men in other walks of activity, have blue eyes."
"In all the workforce in the park numbered four thousand. The ranks included a carpenter and furniture-maker named Elias Disney, who in coming years would tell many stories about the construction of this magical realm beside the lake. His son Walt would take note."
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
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Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC
History. Sociology. True Crime. Nonfiction. HTML:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ? The true tale of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and the cunning serial killer who used the magic and majesty of the fair to lure his victims to their death.
??Relentlessly fuses history and entertainment to give this nonfiction book the dramatic effect of a novel .... It doesn??t hurt that this truth is stranger than fiction.? ??The New York Times
Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction.

Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America??s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair??s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country??s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his ??World??s Fair Hotel? just west of the fairgrounds??a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium. 
Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake.
The Devil in the White City draws the reader into the enchantment of the Guilded Age, made all the more appealing by a supporting cast of real-life characters, including Buffalo Bill, Theodore Dreiser, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and others. Erik Larson??s gifts as a storyteller are magnificently displayed in this rich narrative of the master builder, the killer, and the g

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book's categorization to be sure that The Devil in the White City is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison. The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims. Combining the stories of an architect and a killer in one book, mostly in alternating chapters, seems like an odd choice but it works. The magical appeal and horrifying dark side of 19th-century Chicago are both revealed through Larson's skillful writing. --John Moe

Ar 9.2, 23 Pts
Haiku summary
Grizzly killings in

the shadow of great World's Fair

held in Chicago.

(legallypuzzled)
A glittering fair,
Like a white gauze covering,
Horrifying scars.
(hillaryrose7)

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