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

English

ISBN: 0609608444

EAN: 9780609608449

Category: Architecture / Individual Architects & Firms / General/True Crime / Murder / Serial Killers/History / United States / 19Th Century/True Crime / Murder / General/History / United States / State & Local / Midwest (Ia, Il, In, Ks, Mi, Mn, Mo, Nd, Ne, Oh, Sd, Wi)/

Publisher: Crown Publishing Group

Release Date: 02/28/2003

Synopsis: Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized Americas rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fairs brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the countrys 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 Worlds Fair Hotel just west of the fairgroundsa 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 Larsons 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. To find out more about this book, go to http://www.DevilInTheWhiteCity.com. From the Hardcover edition.

Awards: Book Sense Book of the Year – null  Edgar Awards (Edgar Allan Poe Awards) – null  Great Lakes Book Awards – null  International Horror Guild Awards – null  Library Journal Best Books of the Year – null  National Book Awards – null  Pacific Northwest Bookseller Awards – null  Washington State Book Award – null 

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

Illustrated: Yes

Format: Hardcover

Height: 1.4 inches

Width: 6.39 inches

Length: 9.55 inches

Weight: 25.04 oz

Pages: 464