“Devil in the White City” is top-10 Illinois Book

Erik Larson’s 2003 best-selling book The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America ignited a passion for the 1893 World’s Fair in countless readers. The title recently earned a spot in the list of top-10 books with links to Illinois.

Larson’s historical non-fiction thriller tells parallel stories about the monumental efforts of Daniel Burnham to build the White City in Jackson Park and the monstrous exploits of serial killer H. H. Holmes in a nearby neighborhood and beyond.

Earning the top spot on the list was the beloved 1900 children’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Baum lived in Chicago during the Columbian Exposition and visited the fairgrounds many times with his family. Denslow was a staff artist with the Chicago Herald, assigned to provide weekly illustrations for a series of reports on the World’s Fair. The two did not meet for several more years, but it is fun to think of them rubbing elbows in the crowd on the Midway Plaisance!

The Illinois Top 200 project, a joint initiative of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, the State Journal-Register newspaper, and the Illinois Bicentennial Commission.