For the month of September we will be discussing The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, which reveals that behind the amazing success and grandeur of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair (World’s Columbian Exposition) is a story of an almost insurmountable struggle to get the fair resurrected in time and leave a lasting impression upon the world. Unfortunately, success sometimes comes with a price. In this case, the attraction of the Chicago World’s Fair served as a supplier of victims and a diversion for the first documented American serial killer.
A quote from Publishers Weekly reads:
“Not long after Jack the Ripper haunted the ill-lit streets of 1888 London, H.H. Holmes (born Herman Webster Mudgett) dispatched somewhere between 27 and 200 people, mostly single young women, in the churning new metropolis of Chicago; many of the murders occurred during (and exploited) the city's finest moment, the World's Fair of 1893. Larson's breathtaking new history is a novelistic yet wholly factual account of the fair and the mass murderer who lurked within it.”
The Devil in the White City follows two intersecting story lines throughout the book: the story of the how the Chicago World’s Fair was accomplished by Daniel Burnham and the other architects who made it happen and an account of the serial killer Herman Webster Mudgett.
- Do you feel that these alternating storylines detract from the book’s appeal or make it more interesting?
- Did you find the story behind the resurrection of the Chicago World’s Fair or the account of Herman Webster Mudgett to be the more interesting storyline and why?
The Chicago World’s Fair inspired many important and influential individuals, inventions, and the acceptance of new ideas.
- Who are some of the individuals influenced and ideas or inventions that came about as a result of the fair? Do you feel that if Chicago wins the bid and sponsors the 2016 Olympics it will have the same sort of impact on the area as the World’s Fair did over a century ago?
3 comments:
I started reading this book because of several recommendations, and I thought I would probably skip over the historical portions (I don't usually like history) and focus on Mudgett. However I ended up reading and liking the whole book. I liked the alternating storylines - it helped keep it interesting.
It was amazing to me how they accomplished what they did without all our modern conveniences - no cars, trucks, cell phones and no internet! Everything took so much longer then.
As I was reading it, there was a lot of talk in the press about the Olympics coming to Chicago, and I was thinking what a monumental task it will be to pull that off, even with modern conveniences. Physically the construction will be easier, but there is so much else to consider now, with the security conscious and litigious society we now live in.
I don't think it's impact will last as long as the World's Fair did.
I don't think Mudgett could have continued his crimes as long as he did if he lived today.
I am a fan of all things Chicago. One of my favorite classes in college was on Illinois history, so I was really intrigued by the subject matter. Normally I don’t enjoy jumping between two different story lines. Usually I feel that one of the stories is a distraction or an annoyance getting in the way of the story that I really want to read. Because I was interested in both the Columbia World’s Fair and the true crime story, I found it easier to move between the two stories though for me still jarring at times.
This format does lend itself to placing the true crime story within the context of wider events happening at the same time. And almost explains how Mudgett’s activities went undetected for so long.
I agree with Steeple in that, it will be interesting to see long term impact of the possible Olympics on the area. The impact of the Fair is still with us in the parks and some of the buildings.
Hurrican Ike rushing towards Texas reminded me of another book Erik Larson wrote. "Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History" is about the 1900 storm that hit Galveston and killed 6,000 people, mostly because they didn't know that it was coming.
There is not a true crime aspect to this book. "Isaac's Storm" looks at what was happening in Galveston before, during, and after the storm and focuses on Isaac Cline who worked for the weather service at the time and the state of weather forecasting. I recommended it to my Dad who likes reading suspense and watching storms roll in and he speed right through it.
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