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

This book mixes history and true crime in a way that keeps you turning the pages. The parts about the Chicago World’s Fair are fascinating, and the darker storyline running alongside it is unbelievable at times. It reads more like a novel than a history book, which makes it easy to get pulled in. If you like real stories that feel almost too crazy to be true, this one is worth it.

Erik Larson does a bang-up job of conveying what life must have been like in the "Second City" as the 19th century drew to its fitful conclusion. Bristling at the constant reminder of New York City's superiority in so many areas, Chicago's city fathers rallied the troops and went all out in proving to New Yorkers, to the nation and to the world that Chicago was equal to the great challenge of mounting a World Exposition of truly monumental stature. Larson's descriptions of the Herculean effort put forth by numerous architects, builders, politicians, etc. lead the reader to a true appreciation of these "can do," spirited individuals. Yet beneath the teeming activity and a short distance away from the gleaming white Pleasure Palaces of the Fair, there stood a building of a different sort entirely, inhabited by one of the most vicious, truly evil creatures the young nation ever produced. Larson does an adequate, but not great job of telling the darker story surrounding H H Holmes, the mesmeric Svengali whose brilliant blue eyes and engaging charm seduced at least a score (one estimate was up to 200, which the author disputes) unfortunate women. Unlike Jack the Ripper, to whom he was later likened, he didn't limit himself to female victims. Business partners who had outworn their usefulness and several children were amongst his prey, as well. He just had a penchant for murder. The sections on the construction of the Columbia Exposition are filled with fascinating anecdotes, ranging from the origins of the sobriquet "windy city (derisively coined by Charles Anderson Dana, Editor of The New York Sun)" to the dramatic entrance of Annie Oakley, barreling in on horseback and blazing away with her two six-shooters in Buffalo Bill Cody's Western Show adjacent to the Fair Grounds. Larson also provides an interesting side story surrounding Patrick Predergast, a delusional political aspirant who turns assassin. He paints a compelling portrait of Fredrick Law Olmstead, American History's premier landscape architect who took up the almost impossible task of designing and overseeing the Exposition's parks and lagoons. The hero of the book, however, is Daniel Hudson Burnham, who was ultimately responsible for the lion's share of the planning, construction and smooth running of the entire enterprise. He had a little over two years from the time Congress selected Chicago from a list of candidate cities that included Saint Louis and New York, to the day of the Expo's official opening. That he got the job done within the alloted time is one of the great marvels in an age of marvels, especially given the myriad difficulties which he and his crew had to overcome. The Holmes narractive appears a bit lackluster in comparison to the story of the Fair's construction. Larson acknowledges the difficulty he faced in recreating Holmes' vicious crimes via imaginary vignettes. He states in an afterword that he went back and read Capote's IN COLD BLOOD for the technique in which Capote so brilliantly engaged in his imaginative reconstruction of events. The only problem with this approach is that Capote had access to and the confidence of the two killers that are at the center of IN COLD BLOOD. Larson had only newspaper accounts from the period as well as a very unreliable journal that Holmes wrote after he was tried and sentenced to death (he was hanged several months after the trial). It would appear that Larson goes a bit too far out of his way to avoid the lurid and sensationalitic aspects of Holmes' killing spree. One has only to visit some of the numerous web sites devoted to Holmes to see that Larson is particularly reticent to discuss Holmes' sexual deviance. This is understandable, as Larson wants to be taken seriously as an historian, yet the facts are out there (most of them well documented) so it wouldn't have hurt to have included a bit more of the darker details. The book could also have used more illustrations. The Chicago Tribune, at the time the story first broke in 1894, included a detailed floor plan of the "Chamber of Horrors" Holmes built on the corner of Sixty-Third and Wallace in the Englewood section of Chicago. That illustration would have given the reader a better sense of the bizarre layout of the structure. More pictures of the Exposition would have also been helpful. Here again, there are several sites on the web devoted to the Columbia Exposition that have many pages of great photographs. The books virtues far outweigh its shortcomings and I have no problem in recommending THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY to anyone interested in US History, Chicago Architecture, or just a well told story. BEK

Larson's "Devil In The White City" is every bit as good as his prior Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History if not better still. Larson has a knack for telling a story that not only holds readers spellbound yet retains its historical truth and accuracy all while remaining as truly suspenseful as any fiction I've read. With "Devil" Larson tells the tale of how Chicago was selected to host the 1893 World's Fair but also interweaves the tale of Dr. H. H. Holmes, one of America's earliest and most prolific serial killers. Larson mixes in the individuals who made the World's Fair happen, how it came to be, and the spectacle, doing so with such lively and engaging prose you'd wish you could go back in time to have seen it. And like a moth drawn to a Gilded Age flame, Dr. Holmes saw the opportunity to prey on unsuspecting young women, who came to Chicago to see the fair. Along the way Holmes sets up dubious businesses and eventually creates a hotel that becomes his custom-built slaughterhouse - a virtual house of horrors designed to foster his slaughter in a most efficient and diabolical manner. As Holmes builds his perfect beast so too are Daniel Burnham, Frederick Law Olmstead, and others are creating their vision of beauty - a gleaming white city on the shores of Lake Michigan. But not everything goes so smoothly, and with all the problems encountered it's truly astonishing the fair ever happened or that it made any money. But succeed it does, not all at once, but eventually. The fair becomes a cultural touchstone for that generation in ways unimaginable and what it created shaped the world we live in today. Such was the impact of the Fair. Larson tells these interwoven stories in a way that reminds me of classic silent movies like D. W. Griffith's "Intolerance", and to some following the different plot lines may be a bit of a challenge (although I didn't). Some may be more interested in the Holmes storyline with all its attendant gore. I'd forgotten how truly awful the economy was in 1892/3 and that the Fair succeeded was nothing short of miraculous - it was a risky gamble and the stakes were very high. Reading through I found myself wishing I could have seen it in all its glory and it was sad to hear how the fairgrounds came to an ignominious end. Also fascinating was the storyline of the determined Detective Frank Geyer who doggedly pursued Holmes's path to find his victims. Detective Geyer was truly ahead of his time in his methodical nature and his relentlessness. In the end "Devil" is a glimpse into that society and the culture of that era in a way you almost never get in narrative histories. Larson is probably the best writer in the field and I've yet to read any of his books that failed to amaze and interest me. "Devil" is one heck of a ride!

A really well written and engaging book on Daniel Burnham (creator of Chicagos White City) and the notorious serial killer H H Holmes.

I found this book so stressful with the two story lines - the building of the 1893 World's Trade Fair in Chicago and the serial killer on the loose. They had 2 years to design and build the site including the buildings and the site. As the Landscape Architect could not do his work until the buildings were erected and finished due to the railway tracks coming into the site to deliver the goods and he had to finish his work after whereas when he designed Central Park in NYC it was a 25 year project. With all the contractors and the short time frame - I was stressed wondering how they were going to get it done. The story line of the serial killer - every time he met with someone or took a girl on a date - would this be the time he got rid of them. I must say I certainly got my $s worth in reading this book. It was the July selection for our Book Club - great choice. A great read and enjoyable. Great discussions after.

Muy buen libro

C'est la 3ème fois que j'achète ce livre. Les deux premières fois c'était sous forme papier. Je l'ai prêté par deux fois (j'en parlais avec tant d'enthousiasme que cela faisait envie !) à des gens qui ne me l'ont pas rendu.Cette fois-ci sous forme électronique je suis sure de le garder. On apprend beaucoup de choses sur l'Amérique de la fin du 19ème (j'étudie cela à l'université et cela fait prendre vie au cours théorique). De plus il y a du suspens avec le côté thriller ce qui ne gâte rien. Pour mon 4ème voyage à Chicago, je verrai un autre aspect de la ville, surtout en imagination, car beaucoup de choses ont disparu car les bâtiments de l'exposition universelle ont brûlé.