Why did the author write this book?

The Devil in The White City, published by Erik Larson in 2003, is a factual account of incidents that occurred in Chicago at the end of the 19th century. Larson weaves the story of the Chicago World’s Fair overseer, Daniel Burnham, and his planning and execution of the event, with that of a cunning serial killer who preyed on young women during the same timeframe. The book is both an historical account of a series of events and a philosophical journey in search of answers to the question of why, when life is so short, do some people choose to fill their limited time here doing good whilst others choose to walk the path of evil. It is both gruesome crime thriller and sociological document that constantly contrasts good and evil, dark and light, and shows the vibrant city of Chicago as both the White City of good and promise and the Dark City where evil exists in the shadows.

Larson had come across the story of Dr. H.H. Holmes years before he’d started writing Devil but, though intrigued, dismissed him as a “slasher” (Larson’s word) and moved on. However, as Bookpage explains, “according to Larson, even while working on Isaac's Storm he continued to be tantalized not so much by Holmes himself but by the fact that Holmes lured young women to their deaths at his macabre World's Fair Hotel almost under the very lights of this great international attraction. 'Interestingly,' Larson says, 'other people have written about Holmes but, to my surprise, the fair has always been almost parenthetical. And I kept thinking, here's this marvelous magical fair and as counterpoint to that was this dark, dark creature sort of feeding off the fair. I couldn't really tell one story without telling the other.’ He decided to tell both.” Continuing on that note, in an interview with Identity Theory Larson explained, “I didn’t know the details [about the Fair]. Then I started reading about that World’s Fair. And that’s when I got hooked and realized, ‘Wait a minute. Here was this monumental act of civic good will.’ It really was. This massive act of civic good will and literally in the same place, at the same time, was the opposite, this dark, dark character. And that’s what lured me.