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| The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America | 
 enlarge | Author: Erik Larson
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (735 reviews)
Sales Rank: 275
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 447
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 1
ISBN: 0375725601
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.15230977311
EAN: 9780375725609
ASIN: 0375725601
Publication Date: February 10, 2004
Release Date: February 10, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
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
Product Description
Bringing Chicago circa 1893 to vivid life, Erik Larson's spellbinding bestseller intertwines the true tale of two men--the brilliant architect behind the legendary 1893 World's Fair, striving to secure America’s place in the world; and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. 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.
Download Description
In The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson, author of Isaac's Storm, tells the spellbinding true story of two men, an architect and a serial killer, whose fates were linked by the greatest fair in American history: the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, nicknamed "The White City." 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 a time of magic and majesty, 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. In this book, the smoke, romance and mystery of the Gilded Age come alive as never before. Erik Larson's gifts as a storyteller are magnificently displayed in this rich narrative of the master builder, the killer, and the great fair that obsessed them both.
"Engrossing... exceedingly well documented... utterly fascinating."
CHICAGO TRIBUNE "A dynamic, enveloping book.... Relentlessly fuses history and entertainment to give this nonfiction book the dramtic effect of a novel.... It doesn't hurt that this truth is stranger than fiction."
THE NEW YORK TIMES "So good, you find yourself asking how you could not know this already."
ESQUIRE "Another successful exploration of American history.... Larson skillfully balances the grisly details with the far-reaching implications of the World's Fair."
USA TODAY "As absorbing a piece of popular history as one will ever hope to find."
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE "Paints a dazzling picture of the Gilded Age and prefigure the American century to come."
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY "A wonderfully unexpected book... Larson is a historian... with a novelist's soul."
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
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| Customer Reviews: Read 730 more reviews...
 Wonderfully written, suspenseful mystery May 16, 2008
The Devil in the White City is one of the finest historical novels I have read. It is both lyrically written and packed with fact, a balance which is very difficult to achieve. The plotline essentially reduces to a struggle between good and evil, as the struggles and aspirations of the 1896 Columbian Exposition's leading architect are contrasted with the schemes of a serial killer who runs a "hotel" near the fair. Larson does an excellent job of weaving excerpts of letters, newspaper articles, and even dinner menus into the story of these two men. The book also presents a wonderful picture of Gilded Age America as a whole, and perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the story is the way that, even amid strikes, recession, technical difficulties, and deaths, the fair remained an island of beauty and progress. The 1896 World's Columbian Exposition may not be a well-known historical event like the roaring twenties, the world wars, the Great Depression, or the baby boom, but, as this book shows, it had a huge impact on and in many ways, saved, the American psyche.
Couldn't put this down May 6, 2008
The author narrates two parallel stories: the struggle to create the Columbian Exposition of 1892 and the progress of a serial killer who preyed on women who were drawn to Chicago by the fair. Larson shifts back and forth between these two threads, parceling out his information in such a way that every chapter ends with a cliff-hanger.
 Great book April 20, 2008
For history buffs and mystery afficienados this is a super book. It is a non fiction book about the Chicago World's fair and the serial killer who preyed on the citizens of Chicago. I found it extrememly interesting.
Amazing April 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I found "The Devil in the White City" to be a truly amazing book to read. I expected that the portion of the book dealing with the serial killer, H. H. Holmes, would have been fascinating, and that ended up being true. Reading about the diabolical operation of this man, who had no moral problem murdering women who loved him and small children who had done nothing to harm him, was shocking and kept me turning pages.
I was surprised to find, though, that the descriptions of the construction of the World's Fair were just as compelling and suspenseful. I was astounded at the obstacles Burnham and the other architects were faced with, and the ways in which they consistently were able to make unthinkable things happen in a nearly impossible timefame.
The research of this story was impressive, and I liked the details making clear the issues that would have faced the building industry at the time, things such as difficult access to clean water, that wouldn't be a thought in the minds of workers today.
The events and especially the names dropped into this story, from Helen Keller to Walt Disney to Mark Twain to Susan B. Anthony, made me feel this fair took place in a truly magical time for the United States. It was hard for me to put this book down, and the contrast between Holmes' story and Burnham's story made this tale both horrifying and uplifting.
An Entertaining, Informative and Disturbing Read April 18, 2008
Go back to the 1893 World's Fair that changed America. The Devil and the White City, a novel by Erik Larson, takes the reader back to the time of the World's Fair through the eyes of two remarkable men - Daniel H. Burnham and H.H. Holmes. Daniel H. Burnham was a brilliant architect who was forced to overcome many obstacles to construct the 1983 World's Fair. H.H. Holmes on the other hand was a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor while leading his victims to their death in his World's Fair Hotel, complete with a crematorium and a gas chamber. Erik Larson accomplishes what he set out to do, telling a tale with such drama and mystery that readers will find themselves double-checking to be sure they are not reading a highly imaginative novel. Although readers might find parts of Burnham's story slow at times or H.H. Holmes sinister activities grotesque, this can be easily overlooked by the vivid descriptions, great sentence flow, a nail-biting suspense story, and a terrific supporting cast that includes Thomas Edison, Buffalo Bill and Susan B. Anthony. It is no surprise that Erik Larson was nominated for a National Book Award for The Devil in the White City. He is also a former features writer for Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine, where he is still a contributing writer. Larson has also taught non-fiction writing at various colleges and seminars and has spoken to audiences from coast to coast. The magical appeal and disturbing dark side of 19th century Chicago are both revealed through Larson's masterpiece. The enjoyment of this story is only heightened by the fact that the story is true.
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