Devil in the White City
The classical biographer Plutarch believed that the best biographies were those that revealed the nature of Man, rather than the facts of one man. To this end, he juxtaposed famous men of the Classical world, drawing comparisons and distinctions between them in order to teach the reader a moral lesson. His Parallel Lives consisted of such biographies, written in pairs.
In his book Devil in The White City, Erik Larson continues in this tradition, highlighting the stories of architect Daniel Burnham and Dr. H.H. Holmes, citizens of Chicago during the Gilded Age, an era of industrialization and wealth that set the foundation for the modern American society of the 20th century. The selection of subjects in a parallel biographical sketch is always crucial, and Larson succeeds very well in this respect by juxtaposing two men with very similar traits, living in the same city at the same time, who used their gifts to vastly different ends.
The Chicago of the late 19h Century was a dirty, industrial city known primarily for its slaughterhouses. Its leading men were captains of industry, self-made men who felt keenly snubbed by the Old Money of the East, and New York in particular. Having succeeded in their own, personal fortunes, these men were eager to prove to the world that Chicago could compete on the world stage with the likes of New York, not just financially, but culturally. When the omnipotence of America was challenged by Paris World Fair of 1889 (and its brand-new Eiffel Tower), the leading cities of the United States lobbied to host the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition, which would commemorate the anniversary of the discovery of America. Shockingly, it was Chicago, and not New York, that won the privilege of hosting the fair, much to the chagrin and contempt of New York, which felt that Chicago lacked the manpower and the requisite good taste to host a fair to rival the Parisian exhibition.
Daniel Burnham, a self-made, successful architect from Chicago, was the driving force behind the fair, and the book chronicles his struggle to construct a fair over 630 acres of difficult land in a matter of mere months, amidst bitter disagreements and bureaucratic delays. Though Chicago undertook a near-impossible project, Daniel Burnham’s unwavering commitment allowed the city to succeed and surpass all expectations. The 1893 World’s Fair, nicknamed The White City for its white color design, broke all records for attendance, and its legacy in architecture and urban landscaping would change the designs of cities throughout the USA in the 20th Century. The White City became the model to which other cities would aspire, a beacon of beauty in an age ruled by soot and the ash of industry.
Unfortunately, the nature of Man is dual, and for every great thing achieved there is usually something sinister/opportunistic that lurks in the shadows. While Burnham was building his White City, Dr. H.H. Holmes was establishing himself as a respected physician in Chicago. When he heard news of the World’s Fair, he decided to capitalize on it by buying land nearby and building upon it. He built his “castle” on an entire city block, a mansion with hundreds of rooms and odd hallways, built with little light, the plans of which were known only to Holmes himself. He rented the bottom floors to shops, but kept the other floors for renters who were staying in Chicago for the Fair. In the process of building his castle, he cheated and defrauded several creditors, but his plans for the building were not pecuniary. In fact, he rejected several potential tenants that lacked the traits which he was seeking. He wanted young, beautiful women, new to Chicago, women who could easily disappear without a trace in the Black City.
Dr. H.H. Holmes was a serial killer, one of the first on U.S. soil, and his house of death claimed the lives of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of women and children. He tortured and killed his victims in the soundproof recesses of his castle, then he would skin the bodies and sell the skeletons to hospitals throughout the country. He was extremely intelligent and took advantage of the Fair to prey on victims that were not native to Chicago, a city so crowded that it lacked the manpower to find the increasing number of people who went missing at the Fair.
Burnham and Holmes: two men from humble backgrounds, men who rose in stature through the strength and tenacity of their personalities. They were determined to live a life that was more comfortable than the one they were born into, and they succeeded in raising their fortunes through unwavering determination. They were men who relied on their considerable intelligence and persuasiveness to achieve what they desired. They were opposite sides of the same coin, opposite sides of Man’s ambition. One dedicated his life to the Creation of beauty, and the other to the destruction of it. Larson’s ability to recognize the similarities as well as the differences between these men is the book’s greatest strength, the recognition that Man has the potential for both greatness and evil, and that the ambition of such men would define the Gilded Age and the century that would follow, just as it has defined the whole of Man’s existence, ever since he developed the capacity to dream.
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