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Erik Larson

Goodreads Author

Born

in Brooklyn, New York, The United States

Website

http://www.eriklarsonbooks.com

Twitter

exlarson

Genre

History, Nonfiction

Member Since

January 2011

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/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’s 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’s 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’s 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’s 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’s In the Garden of Beasts, about how America’s first ambassador to Nazi Germany and his daughter experienced the rising terror of Hitler’s rule, is currently in development with StudioCanal and Playtone.

Erik’s first book of narrative nonfiction, Isaac’s Storm, about the giant hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas, in 1900, won the American Meteorology Society’s prestigious Louis J. Battan Author’s Award. The Washington Post called it the “Jaws of hurricane yarns.” Erik is particularly pleased to have won the Chicago Public Library Foundation’s 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’s, 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, “could make a stone cry.” 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’s books

Average rating: 4.02 · 1,441,202 ratings · 107,217 reviews · 43 distinct works • 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 — 744,248 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 — 216,319 ratings — published 2011 — 99 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 — 158,285 ratings — published 2015 — 69 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 — 133,203 ratings — published 2020 — 4 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 — 70,679 ratings — published 1999 — 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
	The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War 4.18 avg rating — 52,132 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
	Thunderstruck 3.78 avg rating — 55,372 ratings — published 2006 — 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
	No One Goes Alone by Erik Larson (Goodreads Author), Julian Rhind-Tutt (Narrator) 3.32 avg rating — 7,571 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 — 2,141 ratings — published 1994 — 18 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 3.62 avg rating — 245 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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Erik Larson's Blog

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’re already halfway through 2024. That means it’s 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

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

77 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

Which book should we read for the March Standalone Group Read?

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

47 votes 48.5%

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

35 votes 36.1%

Clade by James Bradley

9 votes 9.3%

The Elephants in My Backyard: A Memoir by Rajiv Surendra

6 votes 6.2%

97 total votes

8 comments

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