Erik Larson (Author of The Devil in the White City)

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Erik Larson

欧宝娱乐 Author

Born

in Brooklyn, New York, The United States

Website

Twitter

Genre

History, Nonfiction

Member Since

January 2011

URL

/erik_larson

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Erik Larson is the author of nine books and one audio-only novella. His latest book, The Demon of Unrest, is a non-fiction thriller about the five months between Lincoln鈥檚 election and the start of the Civil War. Six of his books became New York Times bestsellers. Two of these, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz and Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, both hit no. 1 on the list soon after launch. His chronicle of the Chicago World鈥檚 Fair of 1893, The Devil in the White City, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and won an Edgar Award for fact-crime writing. It lingered on various Times bestseller lists for the better part of a decade and is currently in development at Disn Erik Larson is the author of nine books and one audio-only novella. His latest book, The Demon of Unrest, is a non-fiction thriller about the five months between Lincoln鈥檚 election and the start of the Civil War. Six of his books became New York Times bestsellers. Two of these, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz and Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, both hit no. 1 on the list soon after launch. His chronicle of the Chicago World鈥檚 Fair of 1893, The Devil in the White City, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and won an Edgar Award for fact-crime writing. It lingered on various Times bestseller lists for the better part of a decade and is currently in development at Disney Studios. Erik鈥檚 In the Garden of Beasts, about how America鈥檚 first ambassador to Nazi Germany and his daughter experienced the rising terror of Hitler鈥檚 rule, is currently in development with StudioCanal and Playtone.

Erik鈥檚 first book of narrative nonfiction, Isaac鈥檚 Storm, about the giant hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas, in 1900, won the American Meteorology Society鈥檚 prestigious Louis J. Battan Author鈥檚 Award. The Washington Post called it the 鈥淛aws of hurricane yarns.鈥� Erik is particularly pleased to have won the Chicago Public Library Foundation鈥檚 2016 Carl Sandburg Literary Award for Non-Fiction.

His audio novella, No One Goes Alone, while a work of fiction, is a ghost story based on real-life events and characters, including famed 19th-century psychologist William James. Erik refers to it as a ghost story with footnotes.

He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied Russian history, language and culture; he received a masters in journalism from Columbia University. After a brief stint at the Bucks County Courier Times, Erik became a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal, and later a contributing writer for Time Magazine. His magazine stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper鈥檚, and other publications.

He has taught non-fiction writing at San Francisco State, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, the University of Oregon, and the Chuckanut Writers Conference in Bellingham, Wash., and has spoken to audiences from coast to coast. A former resident of Seattle, he now lives in Manhattan with his wife, a neonatologist, who is also the author of the nonfiction memoir, Almost Home, which, as Erik puts it, 鈥渃ould make a stone cry.鈥� They have three daughters in far-flung locations and professions. Their beloved dog Molly resides in an urn on a shelf overlooking Central Park, where they like to think she now spends most of her time. ...more

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Erik Larson鈥檚 books

Average rating: 4.02 · 1,418,551 ratings · 105,542 reviews · 33 distinct works 鈥� Similar authors

	The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 734,716 ratings — published 2003 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin 3.89 avg rating — 213,945 ratings — published 2011 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania 4.13 avg rating — 156,194 ratings — published 2015 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz 4.30 avg rating — 130,662 ratings — published 2020 — 60 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History 4.05 avg rating — 69,328 ratings — published 1999 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Thunderstruck 3.77 avg rating — 54,609 ratings — published 2006 — 66 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War 4.18 avg rating — 48,378 ratings — published 2024 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	No One Goes Alone by Erik Larson (欧宝娱乐 Author), Julian Rhind-Tutt (Narrator) 3.32 avg rating — 7,402 ratings — published 2021 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun 3.66 avg rating — 2,092 ratings — published 1994 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Naked Consumer: How Our Private Lives Become Public Commodities 3.63 avg rating — 242 ratings — published 1992 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Rosie and Don

Just finished reading Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project, and loved it. I can't describe the plot, because to do so would be to give away too much of the essential character of the book. Suffice it to say, the story is charming. It's a brisk read that'll take just a few hours of your time, yet leave you seeing the world through protagonist Don Tillman's eyes for days afterward.

Next up, a differen Read more of this blog post »

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Published on February 17, 2014 16:47 • Tags: rosie, simsion, tillman

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According to the calendar, we鈥檙e already halfway through 2024. That means it鈥檚 time for our annual midyear check-in, where we suss out...

Erik is Currently Reading

Erik is currently reading

Warlight

by Michael Ondaatje

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Jul 10, 2019 07:32AM

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Quotes by Erik Larson (?)

“It was so easy to disappear, so easy to deny knowledge, so very easy in the smoke and din to mask that something dark had taken root. This was Chicago, on the eve of the greatest fair in history.”
― Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City

tags: chicago

94 likes

“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood.

Daniel H. Burnham”
― Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America

tags: inspirational

76 likes

“I must confess a shameful secret: I love Chicago best in the cold.”
― Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City

tags: acknowledgments, chicago

69 likes

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Polls

January Side Reads Nominations

Top 5 books move onto the second round!

At the Water's Edge

by Sara Gruen

12 votes, 19.0%

Yes Please

by Amy Poehler

12 votes, 19.0%

All the Bright Places

by Jennifer Niven

11 votes, 17.5%

Girl at War

by Sara Novi膰

9 votes, 14.3%

Raven Black

by Ann Cleeves

5 votes, 7.9%

Secrets of a Charmed Life

by Susan Meissner

5 votes, 7.9%

Like Water for Chocolate

by Laura Esquivel

4 votes, 6.3%

A Town Like Alice

by Nevil Shute

2 votes, 3.2%

A Moveable Feast

by Ernest Hemingway

2 votes, 3.2%

Thunderstruck

by Erik Larson

1 vote, 1.6%

63 total votes

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