The Origin of Larson's 'Devil in the White City'

Author Erik Larson discusses the origins of his best-selling book, “Devil in the White City,” at a recent WSJ+ Books talk.
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[@abbeykroeter]

Fantastic. I was on my own generalized, unorganized but passionate search for any old amazing buildings and happenings when I stumbled upon the Columbian exposition of 1893. Erik Larson's description of how he felt learning about the fair is spot on for me, maybe even less fascinated than I was. I felt it's almost criminal to not include things like the fair in school or history lessons in general. We're not easily impressed these days but imagine the days of horse and buggy, outhouses and no electricity in many towns, the civil war was less than 30 years prior, and this mind blowing city of white palaces with the ideas of the world inside, and foreigners showing their culture in miniature versions if their homes from around the world where most had never seen!! And one of America's first recognized serial killers on the edge of it all.... wow.

[@sam2026]

I just finished the book last week and it was truly enthralling, I plan to read all of his books. Glad my dad recommended it.

[@TheLakesound]

A must read, it kept me glued to my chair, enjoying the historical Chicago, the names of those who made the World’s Fair all familiar now. And yes,, the o5er side, the killer with his expertise, as ugly as that was. I was given this book by my book club. Thank you author, Erik Larson, for your focused drive and passion bringing forth Evers you single and visual factor to the pages as I turned them.

[@e.l.s.3048]

Concur. I met Erik Larson at a signing and he signed my copy of "Devil..." I read it cover to cover twice. Larson makes history books into heart pounding page turners.

[@spe-chulpee-pul6976]

Also Walt Disney 's father was a carpenter there.Thats how Walt got the idea for Disneyland and DisneyWorld

[@ronniedelahoussayechauvin6717]

I personally never read these kind of books. But my gum is “JUICY FRUIT” & my favorite perfume is “JUICY COUTURE” all Fragrances❤️💯❤️

[@MsDboyy]

HH Holmes and the 1893 World’s Fair are 2 really interesting topics that seemingly randomly or ironically were literally closely associated with each other even if not directly 🤷‍♂️ The 1893 worlds fair was a large inspiration for the video game BioShock Infinite and if you’ve ever played that video game and have also seen photos from the worlds fair you can see how similar the art is also HH Holmes is kind of one of the first real on record what we would call today a stereotypical American serial murderer 🤔☯️ It’s just all very fascinating 💯

[@rancherogt8037]

Devil in the White City, research is done solely off Tabloid Journalism of the time mostly papers from New York City that ran the story long after it became a none story in Chicago. This book is highly inaccurate and basically fiction. Holmes hotel was a credit fraud scam, he was a credit and con artist, he built the hotel on credit, took out fire insurance on it and set it on fire prior to World's Fair and was never in operation. The insurance company investigation immediately called it Fraud, and found the so called hidden rooms a year before Pitezel's murder. Those insurance investigation records still exist, and made Chicago papers at the time, and was the reason Holmes left Chicago. The hidden known by all employees of Holmes building were used to hide merchandise. Holme's would buy stuff on credit, not pay hide the merchandise from creditors from being repossessed then sell it for cash. Holmes definitely murdered Pitezel and his children to cover crimes, and botched a few abortions possibly to cover credit fraud that was associated with those women's names, but his motivation to murder would separate him from a serial killer, his motivation was self preservation. Even murders he confessed to 27 I believe was to try and buy time or to muddy the waters and possibly his sanity, because a large number of the 27 had to come forward to say they were alive. Check out HH Holmes The True Story of the White City Devil By Adam Selzer , he has been through history archives and police reports, not just copying and pasting from tabloids like Larson, you can find interviews with Selzer on KZbin