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

　　一位是博覽會建築師，公開運籌耀眼輝煌的白城奇蹟；一位是連續殺人犯，私密打造毛骨悚然的魔鬼基地；一位是推手，一位是兇手……兩個人物，兩段故事，帶我們回到廿世紀前夕，芝加哥崛起的歷史時刻，光明與黑暗，同時上演。

　　1890年2月14日，美國政府宣佈芝加哥通過徵選，正式取得1893年世界博覽會的舉辦資格，令全市市民興奮不已。前一年的巴黎博覽會，代表法國的艾菲爾鐵塔在國際間出盡鋒頭，美國人自認無論在工業技術與藝術素養都與大西洋對岸不相上下，於是，1893年的芝加哥世界博覽會成了美國人要揚眉吐氣的絕佳場合。

　　Daniel Hudson Burnham曾與合夥人在芝加哥建造了史上第一座摩天大樓，但博覽會的籌建卻異常棘手。在距離開幕只有26個月的時間內，他必須從無到有打造一個代表美國成就的博覽會。然而，沒有合適的土地、不同派別的建築師意見不一、籌建的資金不足，這些問題都讓Daniel Hudson Burnham傷透腦筋。好不容易召集了美國建築界的黃金陣容、並募集兩萬名工人傾全力趕工，建物群外表全都漆成了白色。但就在開幕的前一週，美國遭遇史上最劇烈的經濟蕭條，還沒完全蓋好的展廳、六個月展期必須吸引的參觀人潮又該如何因應？

　　在芝加哥取得博覽會資格的慶祝聲中，自稱是藥劑師的H.H. Holmes來到芝加哥市荒涼的英格蘭高地區。當荒蕪的土地被劃定博覽會場地，開始大興土木，H.H. Holmes也就近蓋了一棟外表怪異、歪斜的樓房，準備在博覽會期間作為旅館對外營業，名喚World’s Fair Hotel。許多看上收費低廉而投宿、準備參觀博覽會的年輕女性，紛紛失去了蹤影。H.H. Holmes被警方逮捕時，完全不承認自己犯下連續殺人案件，但媒體統計約有兩百件失蹤 / 死亡與他有關。後人檢查這座旅館建築物，發現其中不僅有多個秘密房間，還設置了一條隱密的木頭斜坡從三樓直通地下室。更駭人的是，地下室放置著一個巨大的焚化爐，金屬拉門內隱約印著一位女性的手掌痕跡……
（中文版2007年8月由漫遊者文化出版）
 
得獎榮譽

　　本書曾獲2004 艾倫坡獎真實犯罪類(Edgar Award Winner for Best Fact Crime) ，並入圍2003美國國家書卷獎非文學類決選名單。電影版權已售出，目前正在籌備拍攝，預計2009年上映。

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER - NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST - From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile comes the true tale of the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago and the cunning serial killer who used the magic and majesty of the fair to lure his victims to their death.

＂As absorbing a piece of popular history as one will ever hope to find.＂ --San Francisco Chronicle

Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction.

Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s 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 ＂World’s Fair Hotel＂ just west of the fairgrounds--a 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 the enchantment of the Guilded Age, 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. Erik Larson’s 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.

作者簡介

艾瑞克．拉森(Erik Larson)

　　美國資深記者，以獨特的觀點挖掘出美國史上幾段充滿戲劇性的生命故事，並以活靈活現的細節重建細節，出版過多本充滿敘事張力的佳作，包括《艾瑟克暴風雨》(Issac’s Storm)、《雷霆殺機》(Thunderstruck)，皆登上美國暢銷書排行榜。曾任華爾街日報與時代雜誌的專題報導寫手，目前仍繼續供稿，作品散見紐約客、大西洋月刊、HARPER’s等雜誌，並開課教授紀實寫作，與妻女定居於西雅圖。
從小立志寫作，大學畢業後先在出版社打雜，以為這樣就能接近作家之路，之後進修了新聞研究所的課程，然後在華爾街日報工作，逐漸厭煩報刊的寫作工作，開始寫自己的書包括The Naked Consumer, Lethal Passage,直到1999年出版的《艾瑟克暴風雨》才讓他獲得評論者和讀者的一致好評。以寫作紀實性的敘事作品為樂。

媒體書評推薦

　　「一本爆發力十足、抽絲剝繭的書…冷酷地熔合歷史和娛樂，賦予這一本非虛構的書一種小說的戲劇效果…真實比虛構更詭譎，並不令人難過。」
──《紐約時報》

「如此之棒，你會發現自己在自問，怎麼你到現在還不知道這些事情。」
──《ESQUIRE》

「又一本探索美國歷史的成功之作……拉森技巧高超地以世界博覽會的內容來平衡可怕的細節。」
──《今日美國》

ERIK LARSON is the author of four national bestsellers: In the Garden of Beasts, Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City, and Isaac’s Storm, which have collectively sold more than 5.5 million copies. His magazine stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s and other publications and his books have been published in fourteen countries.