the devil in the white city author larson

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. This New York Times bestseller intertwines the true tale of the 1893 World's Fair and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. John Moe From the Inside Flap:īook Description Paperback. The magical appeal and horrifying dark side of 19th-century Chicago are both revealed through Larson's skillful writing. Combining the stories of an architect and a killer in one book, mostly in alternating chapters, seems like an odd choice but it works. 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. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. 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. 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. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H.

Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H.

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.

The devil in the white city author larson