murder, magic and madness at the fair that changed America
Erik Larson: The devil in the White City (2003, Doubleday)
447 pages
English language
Published Nov. 10, 2003 by Doubleday.
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.
To one side, the main architect of the Columbian Exposition that would top the Paris World Fair where the Eiffel tower was introduced. To the other, a sociopathic killer taking advantage on the growing numbers of young single women looking both independence and work in Chicago. A gripping story.
If only the history books we read in school were this intriguing! I had very little awareness of what The World's Fair was, let alone how it really did influence this country. It was the first time most people had seen incandescent light, it featured the very first Ferris Wheel (designed by George Ferris to compete with the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Exposition), and the fair's beauty earned it the nickname The White City. The time, labor, expense, and genius that went into this event is worth the telling.
Meanwhile, Erik Larson also tells us the dark story of Herman Mudgett, AKA Dr. H. H. Holmes, a serial killer who used the fair to his financial advantage and also as a lure for more victims. (There were scores of people, especially young women, who arrived in Chicago around this time, only to disappear.)
Eventually, a Philadelphia detective named Frank …
If only the history books we read in school were this intriguing! I had very little awareness of what The World's Fair was, let alone how it really did influence this country. It was the first time most people had seen incandescent light, it featured the very first Ferris Wheel (designed by George Ferris to compete with the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Exposition), and the fair's beauty earned it the nickname The White City. The time, labor, expense, and genius that went into this event is worth the telling.
Meanwhile, Erik Larson also tells us the dark story of Herman Mudgett, AKA Dr. H. H. Holmes, a serial killer who used the fair to his financial advantage and also as a lure for more victims. (There were scores of people, especially young women, who arrived in Chicago around this time, only to disappear.)
Eventually, a Philadelphia detective named Frank Geyer was charged with the job of finding three missing children who had been in Dr. Holmes's company. When he started to trace the steps of this killer, the Chicago police got involved, and found evidence of much, much more...
Larson also paints the backdrop for us, a Chicago in an economically depressed time, where people are out of work and the fair's end highlights the blackness of what remains.
This is excellent, well-paced writing and editing, and I'd recommend it to anyone.
