The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

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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

Book 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.

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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

Customer Reviews:

Intriguing but Very Poorly Written.......2007-10-15

I couldn't wait to read this book because it had been recommended by so many people. But until I started reading it myself and talking about it, I didn't realize how many people started it and couldn't finish it.
Yes, I was one of those who finished it - because I like murder mysteries and I wanted to know what happened, but the other parts were so bad that I ended up using the book as my nighttime reading to put me to sleep.
The subject matter is intriguing, not only for the geography of the story, especially since I live in Chicago, but also for the fact that someone so gruesome lived here and murdered untold numbers of people, mostly women and children.
But the writer jumps all over the place - he consistently doesn't finish thoughts before he moves on to the next thing, little "asides" are inserted without any context, and the timeline jumps around in many places.
And there are unanswered questions, not the least of which is whatever happened to Holmes' 2nd wife and his child?
I'm guess I need to go back to all of those people who recommmended it to me to find out if they really liked it as much as they said they did, or were they just interested in the murder mystery. And how many just skipped to those parts to find out what happened.

A method to his madness.......2007-10-12

The title of this review pertains not only to Dr. H.H. Holmes, the notorious serial murderer who is the focus of Eric Larsen's attention, but to the author himself. This is my second Larson book (after the wonderful "Thunderstruck") and it's not hard to see Larsen's M.O.. Take a historical event that by itself might not generate mass interest, and graft onto it a grisly story of murder -- plural murders if possible. Keep the tension constantly at the boiling point, and voila! A blockbuster.

Method writing aside, DWC was terrific to listen to. Larsen illuminates a little-known corner of American history, shining a light on fascinating people and different ways of looking at things. We experience Chicago, built on train traffic and malodorous slaughter yards. We learn about the architects, like Burnham and Root, who gave us the 1893 Columbian Exposition, also know as the Chicago World's Fair, and their dreams to outdo the Parisian fair of a few years earlier. We also meet Frederick Olmsted, in his early seventies, the designer of New York's Central Park, obsessed with and protective of his vision for the landscaped walks and peaceful lagoons that he imagined for the fair. We also learn of the desperation of the America architects and engineers associated with the fair to somehow outdo the French engineering achievement that was the Eiffel Tower. He learn about life in Chicago, loud, dangerous and exhilarating. What can you say about a town in which you can step off a sidewalk and get clobbered by a speeding train?

But there is a devil in the White City, as the fair was known. Dr H.H. Holmes, ever calm and with personality magnetic to young women, is also busy building. But his construction has an entirely different end than that of Burnham and Olmsted. For while the fair's designers want to bring pleasure to their customers and glory to their city and professions, Holmes wants pleasure and glory for himself. And no law or threatening angel will stop him from committing the most dastardly of crimes against the most innocent and unsuspecting of victims.

For those who know a little about American history, Larsen's constant cloaking of details might be maddening. I happen to know how the search for the engineering marvel came out. But for the rest of us, Larsen's unending teasers and cliffhangers propel us from chapter to chapter and disk to disk. Not to mention the promise of more lurid exposes in his Holmes sections. Larsen does a pretty good job of sticking to the facts, and he states that any material in quotes (not readily discernible in the audio book) is factual, and taken from extant sources. But he is not above a fair amount of creative license outside of the boundaries of the quotation marks. His description of the killer's thoughts and movements and of the death throes of his victims may owe more than a little to Larsen's imagination and informed speculation. But no matter. His suppositions are usually plausible and always gripping.

I don't know enough about the Chicago fair to know how close Larsen gets to its essence. He does tend to overemphasize conflicts, frustrations and setbacks. But one can't ignore the fact that the fair made some mad, some fabulously rich, some well-known and some prematurely dead. An age in which a forty-year-old can succumb to pneumonia -- a disease we now respect but hardly fear -- is one in which day-to-day stakes are high indeed. I have to confess to a bit of a thrill as I anticipated Larsen's recounting of tale after juicy tale of seduction, betrayal and destruction. And Larsen pleases from the first paragraph.

Lurid but not particularly gory, "Devil in the White City" is perfect for readers like me who love their history basted with real-life mystery, spiced with drama and just a pinch of mayhem.

History and Mystery in a non-fiction page turner.......2007-10-11

Larsen deftly weaves an intriguing tale of the building of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 with a story about a psychopath who commits several murders without detection during the same period. The book is chock full of information about prominent personages and inventions that changed the way we live today. It is a real page turner.

Fact and Speculation.......2007-10-10

The Devil In the White City raises troublesome questions about what is factual and what is pure authorial speculation. At times the Larson even privaledges his own imagination as being closer to the truth than statements provided by key players in the book. (See the first three paragraphs on page 39 for an example.) Stronger documentation and clear indications of when the text was meandering into the imaginative realm would have helped this book tremendously.

Great book, though leaves a bit to be desired...........2007-10-09

I am not a huge reader (too busy with college) but this book really caught my eye and, let me tell you, I made time for it once I realized how good it was. The book is incredibly informative and it is immediately apparent that the author did an ENORMOUS amount of research. As one of the reviewers says on a page at the front of the book, you will be left wondering how you DIDN'T know these stories already (for example, you learn about the first Ferris wheel.)

All of that said, I was hoping for much more information about the serial killer aspect... the author would devote maybe 4 pages worth of Holmes for every 10 pages worth of the Chicago Fair. I was mistakenly led to believe that the ratio was about equal and throughout the book, kept hoping that the Fair's historical accounts would become less frequent and instead would be replaced with more of the true crime aspect. At the end of the book, I came to find out that there simply wasn't enough information about the crimes to fill the book as most readers might have liked.

In short, this book is excellent and I highly recommend it. Just be forewarned, it is much more about the Chicago World Fair (and in more detail than most people probably prefer) and less about the serial killer and his

The Devil in the White City : Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America

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The Devil in the White City : Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
Erik Larson
Manufacturer: Crown Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 096571134X

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True Crime, Chicago World's Fair

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America.(Book Review): An article from: Reviewer's Bookwatch

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The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America.(Book Review): An article from: Reviewer's Bookwatch
Craig McAndrew
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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This digital document is an article from Reviewer's Bookwatch, published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2005. The length of the article is 987 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America.(Book Review)
Author: Craig McAndrew
Publication: Reviewer's Bookwatch (Newsletter)
Date: March 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Page: NA

Article Type: Book Review

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Fair play.(Book Review) (book review): An article from: Washington Monthly

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Fair play.(Book Review) (book review): An article from: Washington Monthly
Brian Montopoli
Manufacturer: Washington Monthly Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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This digital document is an article from Washington Monthly, published by Washington Monthly Company on May 1, 2003. The length of the article is 770 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Fair play.(Book Review) (book review)
Author: Brian Montopoli
Publication: Washington Monthly (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 2003
Publisher: Washington Monthly Company
Volume: 35 Issue: 5 Page: 55(1)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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The Devil in the White City : Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
Erik Larson
Manufacturer: Crown Publishers Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OM7UTS

2 Books - 1) - The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America / 2) - Return to Greatness: How America Lost Its Sense of Purpose and What It Needs to Do to Recover It (Unboxed Set of Books)

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2 Books - 1) - The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America / 2) - Return to Greatness: How America Lost Its Sense of Purpose and What It Needs to Do to Recover It (Unboxed Set of Books)
Alan Wolfe , Erik Larson , Alan Wolf , and Eric Larson
Manufacturer: various
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000WHLKIC

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2 Books - 1) - The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America / 2) - Return to Greatness: How America Lost Its Sense of Purpose and What It Needs to Do to Recover It, in either Hard or Softcover, (See Seller Condition Comments), Shipped in one package to save on shipping costs.

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The Devil In The White City - Murder, Magic, And Madness At The Fair That Changed America
Erik Larson
Manufacturer: Vintage Books / Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KWY7E8

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The Devil In The White City Murder, Magic, and Madness At The Fair That Changed America
Larson Erik
Manufacturer: Crown Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UE104G

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This story explodes the popular belief that women white-collar workers tend to reject unionization and accept a passive role in the workplace. On the contrary, the women workers of Harvard University created a powerful and unique union--one that emphasizes their own values and priorities as working women and rejects unwanted aspects of traditional unionism.

The workers involved comprise Harvard's 3,600-member "support staff," which includes secretaries, library and laboratory assistants, dental hygienists, accounting clerks, and a myriad of other office workers who keep a great university functioning. Even at prestigious private universities like Harvard and Yale, these workers--mostly women--have had to put up with exploitive management policies that denied them respect and decent wages because they were women. But the women eventually rebelled, declaring that they could not live on "prestige" alone.

Encouraged by the women's movement of the early 1970's, a group of women workers (and a few men) began what would become a 15-year struggle to organize staff employees at Harvard. The women persisted in the face of patronizing and sexist attitudes of university administrators and leaders of their own national unions. Unconscionably long legal delays foiled their efforts. But they developed innovative organizing methods, which merged feminist values with demands for union representation and a means of influencing workplace decisions.

Out of adversity came an unorthodox form of unionism embodied in the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW). Its founding was marked by an absorbing human drama that pitted unknown workers, such as Kris Rondeau, a lab assistant who came to head the union, against famous educators such as Harvard President Derek Bok and a panoply of prestigious deans. Other characters caught up in the drama included Harvard's John T. Dunlop, the nation's foremost industrial relations scholar and former U.S. Secretary of Labor. The drama was played out in innumerable hearings before the National Labor Relations Board, in the streets of Cambridge, and on the walks of historic Harvard Yard, where union members marched and sang and employed new tactics like "ballooning," designed to communicate a message of joy and liberation rather than the traditional "hate-the-boss" hostility.

John Hoerr tells this story from the perspective of both Harvard administrators and union organizers. With unusual access to its meetings, leaders, and files, he examines the unique culture of a female-led union from the inside. Photographs add to the impact of this dramatic narrative.

Customer Reviews:

White collar warriors win struggle for union at Harvard.......1998-03-27

An inspiring rendtion of the labor struggle at Harvard University....starring regular, working-class women who fought for self-determination on the job. Despite problems with organized labor and internal disputes, these 3,500 workers had the staying power and prevailed against a sometimes subtle and sometimes not campaign by Harvard. A labor story for the 90's.

Book Description

Tourism everywhere is vulnerable to changes in public perception. When news about an earthquake, a violent conflict or a contagious disease in a distant location hits the television, tourists cancel holidays. The September 11, 2001, terrorist attack against the United States impacted on airlines and tourist destinations worldwide, as did subsequent attacks on tourists. These events highlight the importance or destination crisis management for the global tourism industry. Experienced tourism marketer and trainer, David Beirman, has created a guide to crisis management for tourism operators and offices. He provides detailed case studies of different types of crises from around the world, with analyses of the strengths and weaknesses of the approach taken by tourism managers. This is an invaluable reference for tourism managers anywhere in the world, and a useful resource for tourism students.

Customer Reviews:

The Book which explains Tourism's War with Terrorism.......2003-11-03

Let me be right upfront. I'm the author of this book so naturally
I think its pretty good. This book is not a matter of theory as I have lived my subject for years. I'm an Australian who runs the Israel Government Tourism Office in my part of the world and
as a result I have spent three years marketing a tourism destination in crisis. I thought by examning how 10 othe countries handled a range of crises I could do my job a lot better and pass on the lessons I learned to you the reader.

I'd rather you draw your own conclusions but I'd like to tell Americans involved in all business and especially the travel and hospitality business why you should read Restoring Tourism Destinations in Crisis.

I've outlined a series of steps based on a system I adapted called the DESTCON scale to rank and establish a set of procedures for any business to market its way out of those crises which are beyond the management control of the firm. The crisis types the book features are Terrorism, War, Epidemics, Natural Disasters and Crime Waves.

The longest chapter in the book focuses on the response of the American Tourism industry to the September 11 disaster. You will find out that because of a less than brilliant decision by former
adminstration of President Bill Clinton in 1996 to close the US Tourism and Travel Authority, the recovery of the $450 billion US tourism industry was left in the hands of the Travel Industry Association, the private sector and 50 American states. Many of the the problems of the US travel industry's recovery from September 11 is largely due to the fact that the Federal government has failed to make a major commitment to helping an industry which employs millions of Americans. It is to the great credit of the provate sector of the American tourism industry that they have achieved so much in the face of a US Federal Government that gave them so little support. I have also featured the heroic and inspirational story of the New York Tourism's brilliant marketing campaign to inspire both American and foreign tourists to come back to New York following September 11.

When you read of the 11 global case studies I researched on the recovery from crisis around the world, all the success stories outlined in my book show that government has a positive role to play in the recovery process.

While the subject matter of my book is the travel industry's marketing recovery from crisis the relevance of those case studies applies to all business enterprises which have the potential to fall victims of events beyond the control of the boardroom.

The cost of my book is $40 or the equivalent of a cheap dinner for two. The lessons I have learned and which are outlined in the book could be worth billions of dollars to a big business, millions to a medium business and the very survival of a small business. Sure I'd love you to buy a copy of the book but get one for your own sake. Millions of Americans thought terrorism could never happen to them. This book gives you and your business the tools to survive the storms of man and nature.

Book Description

The only advanced marketing textbook specifically focused on the hospitality industry . . .

The time when you could run a hospitality business with nothing but a friendly smile and a strong work ethic has passed. Dining, lodging, and entertaining habits are changing rapidly as the information age revolutionizes the world economy. More than ever, businesses must focus their marketing efforts on specific segments within the market. Success in the hospitality industry demands that you develop the cutting-edge decision-making skills necessary for effective strategic market management.

Marketing Management for the Hospitality Industry provides comprehensive coverage of marketing from both long- and short-term perspectives. Each chapter is an actual component of an overall strategic marketing model, and the book's easy-to-read, hands-on approach simplifies complex material and enables you to grasp difficult concepts quickly and completely.

Inside you'll find:

How-to's for planning long- and short-term marketing strategies
Examples of successful marketing strategies
Specific techniques for analyzing markets
Strategic development and administrative aspects of marketing
Sample strategic marketing plans that clearly demonstrate how marketing strategies are applied in both the lodging and foodservice segments of the industry
Tips on integrating marketing strategy with overall business strategy
Numerous charts and tables that support the text and clarify difficult points

Book Description

The global significance of tourism as an economic, environmental, and social force has never been greater. Modern methods of transportation enable growing numbers of people to travel to almost any area of the world; in the developed world, travel is now regarded as a right, rather than a privilege.

Based on proven marketing principles, Marketing Tourism Destinations defines tourism and its "product" and examines the nature of tourist businesses, with an emphasis on planning for tourism development. Comprehensive, readable chapters discuss such topics as:

Regional goal and strategy formulation
The strategic marketing planning framework
Environment and resource analysis
Target marketing and regional positioning strategy
Regional marketing mix strategy

and more, with cases and examples applicable to different parts of the world.

From its thorough introduction, through each extensively referenced section to the final summary chapter with its valuable recommendations for regional tourism organizations, Marketing Tourism Destinations is an important step forward in the literature of tourism marketing and planning.

Book Description

In Red Bugs, Ken Revell raises the hilarious and the poignant as he evaluates the 2000 presidential election fiasco, while at the same time reminding us of a childhood of a past generation: of a time when girls were "yuckie" and baseball was the object of little boy dreams; when "gay" meant happy, "pot" was something our mama cooked grits in and an "entitlement" was something you had earned but not yet received.

Ken Revell pokes fun at everything from the great "chad" controversy to the 2am telephone conversation between Bush and Gore following the election. And when he writes of the love that he holds for elderly "kin-folk" now gone, you'll swear something has gotten in your eye.

Revell has written a book that will make you laugh, make you mad, and make you cry, sometimes all within just a minute or two. This amazingly thought-provoking book will touch everyone -- husbands, fathers and sones and mothers, daughters and wives.

Customer Reviews:

" IT'S ABOUT TIME ".......2001-12-06

It's about time that something as refreshing has emerged.
Mr. Revell has a true kindness in his wit. He conveys the importance of family and friends in very few words.
After reading the book, I could not help but to believe that the auther wrote from his heart. And Many truths are enveloped by Whit, Humer, and Kindness.
I am saddened that 5 stars is all I'm able to give.

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