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

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

Erik Larson, 2003

As Daniel Burnham raced to build Chicago's 1893 World's Fair, H. H. Holmes ran a hotel nearby where young women vanished: two true stories of ambition and evil.

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20 parts, about 35 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Braids two true stories: the rushed building of the Chicago world's fair, and a murderer who preyed on young women drawn to the city
  • Shows the pressure behind the fair: storms, strikes, fires and money trouble, with architects racing to make a city of plaster
  • Reconstructs how a detective followed the missing children's letters to their remains, a trail that sent police into the killer's castle of hidden rooms

Who it is for

  • Readers of true crime who want the history around it
  • History readers drawn to Chicago in the late nineteenth century
  • Readers who like history told as a story

What the summary covers

  1. Evils Imminent1 min
  2. Aboard the Olympic1 min
  3. Part I: Frozen Music2 min
  4. Holmes Arrives in Englewood2 min
  5. A Site and a Castle2 min
  6. Winter in Jackson Park2 min
  7. Part II: An Awful Fight2 min
  8. Remains of the Day2 min
  9. Dedication Day2 min
  10. Emeline Disappears2 min
  11. On the Eve of Opening2 min
  12. Part III: In the White City2 min
  13. One Good Turn1 min
  14. Independence Day2 min
  15. Toward Triumph1 min
  16. Nightfall2 min
  17. Part IV: Cruelty Revealed, 18952 min
  18. The Tenant2 min
  19. Epilogue: The Last Crossing2 min
  20. Author's Note on the Evidence1 min

About the author

  • Erik LarsonAmerican author of mostly historical nonfiction
    • Born in Brooklyn and raised in Freeport, Long Island, New York
    • Graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied Russian history, language and culture
    • Earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University
    • Worked two years at the Bucks County Courier Times, then became a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal and later a contributing writer for Time
    • His magazine stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly and Harper's
    • Has taught nonfiction writing at San Francisco State, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars and the University of Oregon
    • His first book of narrative nonfiction, Isaac's Storm, about the 1900 Galveston hurricane, won the Louis J. Battan Author's Award
    • Author of seven national bestsellers that have collectively sold more than twelve million copies and been published in nearly forty countries

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