Monday, July 16, 2012

The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson


People, Places, Events
Chicago World’s Fair
H. H. Holmes (Herman Webster Mudgett)
Daniel Hudson Burnham
Margaret –wife

John Wellborn Root – died before completion

World’s Columbian Exposition Company
Burnham and Root – lead designers

Frederick Law Olmstead – landscape architect
Harry Codman – new member of Olmstead’s firm

Sol Bloom – in charge of Midway

George Washington Gale Ferris

Buffalo Bill
Annie Oakley

Carter Henry Harrison - mayor

Patrick Eugene Joseph Prendergast – murdered Harrison
A. S. Trude – lawyer


First wife – Clara Lovering
Second wife – Myrta Belknap – daughter Lucy
Third wife – Minnie Williams (not legal)

Three associates:
Charles Choppel
Patrick Quinlan
Benjamin Pitezel

Nine known victims:
Julia and Pearl Conner
Emeline Cigrand
Minnie and Anne Williams
Pitezel
Alice, Nellie and Howard Pitezel

Others who disappeared:
Boy in Mooers Fork, Michigan
Mrs. Holton – druggist wife
Misc. drugstore clerks

Georgiana Yoke

Detective Frank Geyer

 For discussion:
NOTE:  All page numbers refer to paperback edition.

1.            Discuss the author’s writing style.  Did you like the frequent foreshadowing?   For example, on page 30 when writing about minor setbacks, the author wrote, “Far worse was to occur, and soon.”

2.            Discuss Barnham and Root’s working relationship and the atmosphere in their office.   Ahead of their times, they had a gym and played handball over the lunch hour.  Another employee stated that, “The office was full of a rush of work, but the spirit of the place was delightfully free and easy and human in comparison with other offices I worked in.”  (page 27)

3.            Discuss Holmes and his childhood.  His parents were very strict and often spanked him and sent to the attic without food or talking, he tortured animals, his friend, Tom, was killed in a fall while playing with Holmes.

4.            How was Holmes able to fool so many people?  What was it about him that drew women in particular to him?  On page 36 the author wrote that he “broke prevailing rules of casual intimacy.”   Would he be able to avoid detection for so long in today’s culture?

a.            How was it that so many people were able to go missing without any trace?

5.            Would you have been one of the first to ride the Ferris Wheel?

6.            Were you able to visualize or comprehend the scope of the Fair?   Do you think something like that could be accomplished today?

7.            Discuss Barnham’s motto, “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood.”

8.            Were you surprised that so many new products, innovations and important people were either introduced at the Fair or somehow connected with the Fair?

Important people and events connected to the World’s Fair
Augustus St. Gaudens, sculptor

Elias Disney – son Walt – carpenter and furniture maker

Westinghouse Electric Company – won contract to illuminate exposition

Francis J. Bellamy – Pledge of Allegiance

Bloom’s three-bar tune

Burnham’s concession to carpenters and ironworkers – contract became model for future – gave strength to labor movement

Frank Lloyd Wright – junior partner with Louis Sullivan, architect for Transportation Building

New products introduced at fair:
  • Zipper
  • Shredded Wheat
  • Automatic dishwasher
  • Music transmitted long distances
  • Moving pictures
  • Cracker Jacks
  • Claim checks for children left at the  Children’s Building           


No comments:

Post a Comment