The devil in the White City : murder, magic and madness at the fair that changed America

Title:

Author:

Larson, Erik, author.

ISBN:

9780553813531

Physical Description:

495 pages : illustrations (black and white), map, music. ; 20 cm

General Note:

Originally published: London: Doubleday, 2003.

Abstract:

This is the story of the men and women whose lives were irrevocably changed by the Chicago World Fair, and of two men in particular: an architect and a serial killer. Spicing the narrative are the stories of a cast of historical characters including Buffalo Bill, Scott Joplin and Theodore Dreiser.

Personal Subject:

Burnham, Daniel, 1846-1912.

Mudgett, Herman W., 1861-1896.

Conference Subject:

World's Columbian Exposition (1893 : Chicago, Ill.)

Subject Term:

Serial murderers -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Biography.

Murder -- Illinois -- Chicago -- History -- 19th century.

Crime.

Geographic Term:

Chicago (Ill.) -- History -- 19th century.

Genre:

True Crime

Illinois

Architecture: public buildings

History of the Americas

History

Social services & welfare, criminology

Language:

English

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Mark	Adult Genre	Status
Searching... Ashford Library (Surrey)	Adult non-fiction	CRI 364.1523		Searching... Unknown
Searching... Beckton Globe Library (Newham)	Adult non-fiction	364.1523092	Reading group	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Bookham Library (Surrey)	Adult non-fiction	CRI 364.1523		Searching... Unknown
Searching... Brentwood Library (Essex)	Adult non-fiction	364.1523092		Searching... Unknown
Searching... Camberley Library (Surrey)	Adult non-fiction	CRI 364.1523		Searching... Unknown
Searching... Chertsey Library (Surrey)	Adult non-fiction	CRI 364.1523		Searching... Unknown
Searching... Colchester Library (Essex)	Adult non-fiction	CRIME		Searching... Unknown
Searching... East Ham CSC and Library (Newham)	Adult non-fiction	364.1523092	Crime Non-Fiction	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Hammersmith Library (Hammersmith and Fulham)	Adult non-fiction	364.152	Crime Non-Fiction	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Loughton Library (Essex)	Adult non-fiction	364.1523092	Crime Non-Fiction	Searching... Unknown
Searching... New Haw Community Library (Surrey)	Adult non-fiction	CRI 364.1523		Searching... Unknown
Searching... Oxted Library (Surrey)	Adult non-fiction	CRI 364.1523		Searching... Unknown
Searching... Palmers Green Library (Enfield)	Adult non-fiction	364.1523		Searching... Unknown
Searching... Roxeth Library (Harrow)	Adult non-fiction	364.152	Crime Non-Fiction	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

'An irresistible page-turner that reads like the most compelling, sleep defying fiction' TIME OUT

One was an architect. The other a serial killer. This is the incredible story of these two men and their realization of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, and its amazing 'White City'; one of the wonders of the world.

The architect was Daniel H. Burnham, the driving force behind the White City, the massive, visionary landscape of white buildings set in a wonderland of canals and gardens.

The killer was H. H. Holmes, a handsome doctor with striking blue eyes. He used the attraction of the great fair - and his own devilish charms - to lure scores of young women to their deaths.

While Burnham overcame politics, infighting, personality clashes and Chicago's infamous weather to transform the swamps of Jackson Park into the greatest show on Earth, Holmes built his own edifice just west of the fairground. He called it the World's Fair Hotel.

In reality it was a torture palace, a gas chamber, a crematorium.

These two disparate but driven men are brought to life in this mesmerizing, murderous tale of the legendary Fair that transformed America and set it on course for the twentieth century . . .

Reviews (1)

Guardian Review

This fascinatingly lurid narrative tells the story of two men in late 19th-century Chicago. One, Daniel H Burnham, is the architect who created the famous "White City" for the Chicago World's Fair of 1893; the other, Dr HH Holmes, is a serial killer, who ran a hotel and murdered an uncertain number of guests in his specially constructed surgical and crematorial vaults. Larson skilfully evokes the pungent attraction of his hog-slaughtering, gas-lit Chicago. His descriptions of the World's Fair itself, complete with electric lighting and the first appearances of Shredded Wheat and the zip, are expertly stage-managed: he long holds back the information that a young engineer, determined to "out-Eiffel Eiffel", is a certain Mr Ferris, who unveils the first Ferris Wheel, nearly 300ft high. Burnham's struggles with accountants and builders to get the White City finished on time inevitably pale beside the novelistic portrayal of the "devil" and his killings. Caption: article-pnonf15.1 This fascinatingly lurid narrative tells the story of two men in late 19th-century Chicago. - Steven Poole.