Research Catalog

The devil in the white city : murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America

Title
The devil in the white city : murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America / Erik Larson.
Author
Larson, Erik, 1954-
Publication
New York : Crown Publishers, ©2003.
Supplementary Content
  • Book review (H-Net)
  • Contributor biographical information
  • Publisher description

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Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building M2 to submit a request in person.

TextUse in library IVF (Chicago) 03-2411Schwarzman Building M2 - Milstein Division Room 121

Details

Description
xi, 447 pages : illustrations, maps; 25 cm
Summary
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.
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Biographies.
  • Biography.
  • Case studies.
  • History.
  • True crime stories.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 423-429) and index.
Awards (note)
  • National Book Award Finalist, Nonfiction, 2003
Contents
Evils imminent -- Prologue, aboard the Olympic -- Frozen music -- An awful fight -- In the white city -- Cruelty revealed -- Epilogue, the last crossing.
Call Number
IVF (Chicago) 03-2411
ISBN
  • 0609608444
  • 9780609608449
LCCN
2002154046
OCLC
51053561
Author
Larson, Erik, 1954-
Title
The devil in the white city : murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America / Erik Larson.
Imprint
New York : Crown Publishers, ©2003.
Edition
1st ed.
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 423-429) and index.
Awards
National Book Award Finalist, Nonfiction, 2003
Connect to:
Sample text
Book review (H-Net)
Contributor biographical information
Publisher description
Chronological Term
1800 - 1899
Research Call Number
IVF (Chicago) 03-2411
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