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

Erik Larson

Vintage Books, 2004 - Architecture - 447 pages

The story of two men's obsessions with the Chicago World's Fair, one its architect, the other a murderer. 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.

About the author

Erik Larson was born in Brooklyn on January 3, 1954. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania and went to graduate school at Columbia University. Larson worked for the Wall Street Journal and then began writing non-fiction books. He is the bestselling author of the National Book Award finalist and Edgar Award-winning, The Devil in the White City, which has been optioned for a feature film by Leonardo DiCaprio. He also wrote In the Garden of the Beasts, Issac's Storm, Thunderstruck and The Naked Consumer. Larson has taught non-fiction writing at San Francisco State University, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, and the University of Oregon.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
• Author: Erik Larson
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Vintage Books, 2004
• ISBN: 1606862189, 9781606862186
• Length: 447 pages
• Subjects: Architecture / Individual Architects & Firms / General; History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies); History / United States / 19th Century; History / United States / State & Local / Midwest (IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI); True Crime / Murder / General; True Crime / Murder / Serial Killers