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

by Erik Larson

book data

29,157 ratings, 3.91 average rating, 5,466 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		28%
4		43%
3		21%
2		5%
1		1%

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published

February 10th 2004 (first published 2003) by Vintage

binding

Paperback, 447 pages

characters

Daniel Burnham, H. H. Holmes

setting

Chicago, IL

isbn

0375725601 (isbn13: 9780375725609)

description

Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking th...more

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04/02/08

James rated it:

(review of isbn 0553813536)

bookshelves: reviewed

Read in December, 2004

Heard the one about the architect and the serial killer? It's not a bad joke, but it is a great book. The architect was Daniel Burnham, the driving force behind the Chicago World's Fair of 1893; the killer was H.H. Holmes, a Svengali-type figure who lured young women to his hotel and did the most gruesome things, the least shocking of which was murder. The two men never met, but The Devil in the White City brings their stories together, and although it reads like a novel, everything is thoroughl...more

Like this review? yes (19 people liked it)

2 comments

02/19/08

SF SQRL rated it:

bookshelves: 100-books-2008, 2-or-fewer-star-books-2008, ees-book-chat, non-fiction

Read in July, 2008

recommended to SF SQRL by: Evil Editor
recommends it for: fans of architects

Here's how I imagine it went.

Larson: I wanna write a book about the architects who designed the World's Fair in Chicago. Also, pork.

Publisher: Nobody wants to read about architects. They're boring.

Larson: But the World's Fair--

Publisher: Boring.

Larson: The mayor gets murdered.

Publisher: When?

Larson: At the end.

Publisher: (yawns) Too late.

Larson: If I could find some juicy murders to spi...more

Like this review? yes (21 people liked it)

17 comments

08/12/07

Kristy Hartsgrove rated it:

(review of isbn 0739303406)

Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: anyone

Ohhhh, this book is creeeeeepy and all-true!!! Being from Chicago I was in an awful thrall the entire time. The only thing that was missing for me would have been some kind of map to show where exactly the Fair was located, and all the other buildings he talks about... I think the fair was probably located roughly on what the Museum Campus is now, but I still would like to see a map.

And the people! Burnham and Root and Atwood... and Carter Henry Harrison! It says his mansion was on ...more Ohhhh, this book is creeeeeepy and all-true!!! Being from Chicago I was in an awful thrall the entire time. The only thing that was missing for me would have been some kind of map to show where exactly the Fair was located, and all the other buildings he talks about... I think the fair was probably located roughly on what the Museum Campus is now, but I still would like to see a map.

And the people! Burnham and Root and Atwood... and Carter Henry Harrison! It says his mansion was on Ashland, I'm wondering exactly where. And Mudgett... I wonder where all of his buildings were... it sends chills up my spine just to think about it. I wonder if anyone has put together a tourist's map based on this book?

O.K., beyond my personal reasons for being fascinated, the writing is excellent, and really well documented. And the charming thing is that he documented everything in the back of the book in a really simple way, so if you were so inclined you would not have to be a big fancy scholar to follow his paper trail and see all of this stuff for yourself. Power to the people!

And the writing style is accessible and the voice is also very appropriate... he kind of veers between eulogist and undertaker. And the few times that he takes liberties and describes things that no one could ever really possibly have documented, he does so in a way that is careful and responsible. And I think for him not to have taken the liberties would have been a mistake... I think everyone who read the book would have thought there was something missing.

And what's ultimately really rewarding about this book is that the author outlines all the ways in which the influences of Fair of 1893 reverberated in American culture (and the world) for years afterward. Our aesthetic sensibility as a nation was permanently changed. And our technological sensibility. And to think that all of this was planned so fast, it was like a supernova in the middle of this underdeveloped backwater (oh, I said it. I live here now, and sometimes I still think of Chicago that way.). And that with all that progress comes this darkness, too, there's this underside to everything.

And with that lovely thought, I'm going to try and find the Wooded Island. Ciao!(less)

Like this review? yes (14 people liked it)

3 comments

09/11/08

Seth Hahne rated it:

Read in September, 2008

recommends it for: anyone, really

Humour me and please allow the channeling an eighth grader for just a moment. OMG Squeee!!1 Teh best!! (Would an eighth grader say "teh best"?) And now we return you to our regularly scheduled review.

I'm not a huge fan of non-fiction. Scratch that. I'm a huge fan of non-fiction, but not so huge a fan of reading non-fiction. While I appreciate learning and broadening my understanding of the world around and as it once was, I find myself pretty quickly distracted from whateve...more

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06/08/08

David rated it:

bookshelves: book-to-re-read, mystery, non-fiction

Read in January, 2005

I read this book in 2005 as a library book after I saw it won the Edgar Award for best Best Fact Crime the year before. I own a copy, I re-read it last year.

My fascination with the World's Columbian Exhibition (1893 Chicago World's Fair) began when I went to work for the President Benjamin Harrison Home. Harrison, as President, commissioned the Fair. A formality really. The Fair began as a 400th Anniversary Celebration of Columbus landing in the Americas. It soon grew beyond that. Ha...more

Like this review? yes (4 people liked it)

1 comment

03/30/07

Jude rated it:

(review of isbn 0739303406)

Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: pretty much everyone.

My daily life is filled with non-fiction: facts that are collected to give information quickly and easily to a reader. When I read for enjoyment, I usually gravitate toward fiction.

I didn't realize this book was non-fiction when I bought it. I bought it because it came recommended from Katie, who has good book taste and hasn't steered me down the wrong path yet. When I read the back cover before beginning, I thought: what the hell did I get myself into?

Surprisingly, I fo...more

Like this review? yes (4 people liked it)

1 comment

06/16/08

Joan added it (review of isbn 0609608444)

I feel as though I ought to write two (or three) reviews of this book, because it consists of two (or three) stories: the creation of the Columbian Exposition of 1893, the murders committed by H.H. Holmes, and (peripherally) the assassination of Mayor Carter Harrison.

Larson's narrative jumps back and forth between these stories, without ever connecting them, and so the book leaves one with a very disjointed feeling, a feeling that something was left out, something that would show a rel...more I feel as though I ought to write two (or three) reviews of this book, because it consists of two (or three) stories: the creation of the Columbian Exposition of 1893, the murders committed by H.H. Holmes, and (peripherally) the assassination of Mayor Carter Harrison.

Larson's narrative jumps back and forth between these stories, without ever connecting them, and so the book leaves one with a very disjointed feeling, a feeling that something was left out, something that would show a relationship among the events described (or at least one more significant than that they occurred in the same city at the same time).

The book is worth reading for the history of the Columbian Exposition. Such an enterprise naturally left a great deal of source material for Larson to draw on, and he wisely chose to focus on the involvement Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmstead, the planner and the landscape architect. Both were not only interesting, brilliant men in their fields, but were inveterate diarists and letter writers, very helpful to the historian! It's a great saga, as Chicago is awarded the Fair with less than two years until its planned opening. Even though one knows, of course, that the Fair went off magnificently, one is on tenterhooks reading of the rivalries, the missteps, the difficulties. Will it open? Will it be ready? Excellent stuff.

The story of H.H. Holmes, serial killer, who lured young women to his oddly-constructed building near the Fair and gruesomely killed them, on the other hand, is badly told and unconvincing. Why so? The source material, for one, is lacking. Though Holmes wrote a memoir, and Larson also consulted the trial record [of H's murder trial in Philadelphia; he was never charged with the murders in Chicago] and contemporary news accounts, the author seems to rely heavily on a couple of sensationalist books whose sources are not sufficiently accounted for. Naturally, one must take with a grain of salt the hindsight memories of those who, after Holmes' activities were known, "always thought there was something odd".

Larson also has an annoying habit, one which he shares with some other writers of non-fiction, of engaging in speculation and interpretation presented as fact. He describes thoughts and feelings of real people with no basis other than "it's likely". The difficulty is that the text is presented with no qualification, and it is only careful attention to the endnotes that reveals Larson's imagination is at work.
I'm not sure why he felt the need to weave in the thread about Harrison's assassination, other than the fact that it occurred a few days before the close of the Exposition and so affected the closing ceremonies. It was a curious event in Chicago history, the assassin was clearly a paranoid schizophrenic, but it doesn't contribute much to this history.

On balance, the book is good reading for the sections on the Exposition (and should be in any collection of Chicagoiana for that), and even the rest of it is somewhat redeemed by Larson's generally compelling narrative style.(less)

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04/04/09

Annalisa rated it:

(review of isbn 0609608444)

bookshelves: book-club, memoir-history, non-fiction, psychology

Read in April, 2009

recommended to Annalisa by: Dani
recommends it for: history buffs

I read a few reviews about this book criticizing the book for being more about the white city and less about the devil and I almost didn't finish the book thinking the book wouldn't be that much about Holmes. I'm so glad I didn't listen.

I've always had a some vague fascination with the World Fair and was pleasantly delighted to find out how much of our world gets its roots from the Chicago World Fair: our neoclassic bank building styles, city planning, labor union reformations, and ...more I read a few reviews about this book criticizing the book for being more about the white city and less about the devil and I almost didn't finish the book thinking the book wouldn't be that much about Holmes. I'm so glad I didn't listen.

I've always had a some vague fascination with the World Fair and was pleasantly delighted to find out how much of our world gets its roots from the Chicago World Fair: our neoclassic bank building styles, city planning, labor union reformations, and most importantly modern theme parks (thank you!). I think it would have been fascinating to attend the world fair and see electricity in all its glory for the first time, to experience the fireworks shows over the lake, and see all the new technology of our greatest age of scientific innovation. Some new products showcased at the world fair: Cracker Jack popcorn, shredded wheat, hot air balloons, Kodak cameras, the electric chair, zippers, and telephones. Some people in attendance: Helen Keller, Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Houdini, Thomas Edison, Buffalo Bill, Woodrow Wilson, and Susan B. Anthony. What a time. It would certainly make you feel patriot knowing the US had upstaged Paris, and without New York or any of the eastern cities. And Larson did a good job of making the construction of the fair, the magic of its duration, and its lasting impact exciting.

Sure Howard Holmes, or Herman Mudgett, may not have had anything to do with the world fair, but he was in Chicago at the time preying on its visitors so he adds to the ambiance of the time. A story about the world fair would not be complete without him and it is his rightful place to be secondary in the story, or at least on an even plane. That's not to say I didn't want more of the Holmes chapters but there is so little known about him. As America's first serial killer, how come he is forgotten when Jack the Ripper terrorizing England at the same time is infamous? That's because Holmes was such a master at deception that nobody really knows exactly whom he killed and how. Up until the end, he was still playing with authorities, and the public, laughing that nobody knew the truth. Serial killers want to be famous these days but Holmes had nobody to upstage (other than his English counterpart who was never found) and was satisfied with knowing he had pulled one over on everyone. It would be nice if more were known about Holmes and his Castle of Terror. Without a lot of concrete information but much speculation, I thought Larson did a good job of giving us an accurate picture of Holmes (like I would know) and presenting the gory details without being disgusting but still showing us how disturbing the events were. And I enjoyed how his story was weaved between the pressure to get the fair done on time. Both stories were fascinating, well researched, intriguingly written and I'm glad I finished the read.(less)

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

1 comment

08/26/08

Danielle rated it:

bookshelves: did-not-finish, non-fiction

Read in September, 2008

So, no offense to those that liked this book, but I'm throwing in the towel after 75 pages. It's just not holding my interest. Part of the reason for this is that Larson's writing style is way too speculative for my taste in non-fiction. I just finished reading the Path Between Seas by David McCullough, and he does such an amazing job of making complicated, historical events interesting, without fabricating scenes that "could have" happened. Even that wouldn't have bothered me that mu...more

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

12 comments

08/11/08

Trena rated it:

(review of isbn 0739303406)

Read in September, 2008

recommended to Trena by: Stephen
recommends it for: Anyone with even a passing interest in history or psychopaths

I debated over whether to give this four or five stars. I usually give four stars to books I love but that might not be to everyone's taste, and five stars to books I think everyone would like. When I went on a (fruitless) search for this on the library's shelves, I was a little embarrassed to find myself in the True Crime section. I don't go in for the gruesome and garrulous "I know who killed me" genre; it strikes me as tasteless and sensationalist, and plus I feel that I have the...more

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

2 comments

06/19/08

Linda rated it:

(review of isbn 0739303406)

Read in August, 2008

recommends it for: history buffs, architecture buffs, true crime readers

A friend suggested this book and I thought perhaps it would be similar to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil which I thoroughly enjoyed---historical with a story woven into it. However, I was unfortunately unable to finish it. I think Goodreads needs a new category...."got bored, so I gave up". This book weaves together the true story of 2 men, an architect and a serial killer---with the Chicago World's Fair as the background. I think it was the voluminous details given about ...more

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04/30/08

Amy rated it:

Read in April, 2008

Fascinating! I grew up in Chicago and each year we had a brief unit in school on the city's history: Carl Sandburg, The Jungle, railroads, Native Americans. But we never once touched on the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition (aka the World Fair) and I knew nothing at all about this amazing feat or the people involved until I read Larson's book.

I can't believe such an important time -- both for the city and the nation -- which introduced so much to American society has been so forgotte...more

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12/28/07

RA rated it:

Read in June, 2008

Would recommend: Probably

I read The Devil in the White City in less than a week, and for a book of almost 400 pages, that's saying something. The story was very compelling, and I found the descriptions of late 19th-century Chicago fascinating. I feel the need to look up more about the Chicago World's Fair, as well as visit the city itself. The two main characters (I hesitate to use that term since they were real people) held up their own story lines very well, and it was, as they ...more

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11/12/07

Tracey rated it:

(review of isbn 0609608444)

Read in November, 2003

Bought Oct 2007

I heard an interview with the author on the Diane Rhem show back in March 2003 & checked to see if the library had the book.

This book follows the development of the 1893 World's Fair and the murderous spree of one of America's first serial killers, Herman Webster Mudgett (aka H.H. Holmes) both occurring in the burgeoning city of Chicago. Larson alternates between the two narratives more or less a chapter at a time. The writing is superb, bringing to life th...more

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

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07/12/07

Maureen rated it:

(review of isbn 0739303406)

bookshelves: crime-law

Read in July, 2007

recommends it for: people interested in Chicago, architecture & city planning, serial killers, foreshadowing

I enjoyed Devil in the White City, particularly for the wealth of information (tons of great trivia!) in this novel-style nonfiction book. I probably would have appreciated it more, though, if I were from Chicago, a city planner or architect, or had a fascination with serial killers.

What was by far the most irksome for me was Larson's insistence on foreshadowing absolutely every character introduction and happening in the book. Some are clever, but this "one day, he would make h...more

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06/20/08

Steff rated it:

(review of isbn 0739303406)

I loved this book I would even say that it one of my favorite books of all time. It had a very intriguing plot and none of it was even fiction. Although at first you may wonder why the author chose to write a story of two totally unrelated people, the man responsible for the worlds fair in Chicago 1893 and a serial killer stocking women in Chicago the during the same period of time. But the author draws the parallel between them, they both had such passion for the things they were doing one for ...more

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01/27/08

Anita rated it:

(review of isbn 0739303406)

Read in March, 2008

I really enjoyed this book. It is 2 parts history and 1 part psychological thriller.

The author does a great job of laying out the gravity and impact of the World's Fair in Chicago. The stature and "key players" were fascinating-- intertwining history and lore. I felt like I had attended a very interesting class on Chicago cerca turn of the nineteenth century.

The "Devil" was a side show really, but incredibly frightening and interesting all the same....more

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

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03/09/09

Joe rated it:

I absolutely loved reading this book. I was totally drawn in immediately by the two parallel stories and could not put this down. I read this during my trip through Peru and every spare travel moment was taken up by it. The book tells the true story of the 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago (most notable for bestowing upon the blue ribbon that has made Pabst famous) and it's development alongside the story of notorious serial killer H.H. Holmes. Each chapter alternates between following Daniel...more

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05/12/08

Teri rated it:

(review of isbn 0739303406)

Read in August, 2006

Don't let the mass murderer turn you off of this book. His actions are reported very factually (as in not gory) and the info on the 1892 Columbian Exposition is fascinating. After you read it google the expo and there's a website with tons of pictures of the buildings described in the book. (Wish he would have put them in it)

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01/28/09

Annie rated it:

(review of isbn 0739303406)

Read in January, 2009

I usually enjoy reading books rooted in history but this one was great because it read so smoothly - like a novel. I had no idea about the Chicago World's Fair in the 1890's and how influential it was for the country. I also enjoyed how Larson took the time to find the human depth and psychology of the real people who experienced this event. I can see why this book is so popular: it takes a little known historical event (that would normally be a little dry), an excellent amount of research, and ...more

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