Erik Larson (author)

This page is about the non-fiction author. For the comic book writer, see Erik Larsen; for the Disney animator, see Eric Larson.

Erik Larson (2007)

Erik Larson (born January 3, 1954, in Brooklyn, NY) is an American author.

Early life [edit]

Larson grew up in Freeport, Long Island, New York. ^[1]

He studied Russian history at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated summa cum laude in 1976. After a year off, he attended the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, graduating in 1978.^[1][2]

Career [edit]

Larson's first newspaper job was with The Bucks County Courier Times in Levittown, Pennsylvania, where he wrote about murder, witches, environmental poisons, and other "equally pleasant" things. He later became a features writer for The Wall Street Journal and Time magazine, where he is still a contributing writer. His magazine stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, and other publications.

Larson has also written a number of books, beginning in 1992 with The Naked Consumer: How Our Private Lives Become Public Commodities (1992), followed in 1995 by Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun (1995).^[2] Larson's next books include Isaac's Storm (1999), about the experiences of Isaac Cline during the Galveston Hurricane of 1900; and The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (2003), about the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and a series of murders by H. H. Holmes that were committed in the city around the time of the Fair. The Devil in the White City won the 2004 Edgar Award in the Best Fact Crime category. In 2006, Larson published Thunderstruck, which intersperses the story of Hawley Harvey Crippen with that of Guglielmo Marconi and the invention of radio. His most recent book, In The Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and An American Family in Hitler's Berlin (2011), concerns William E. Dodd, the first American ambassador to Nazi Germany.^[3]

Larson has taught non-fiction writing at San Francisco State University, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, and the University of Oregon, and has spoken to audiences from coast to coast.

Personal life [edit]

Larson and his wife have three daughters. They reside in Seattle, Washington.^[2]

He has lived in Philadelphia, Bristol, Pennsylvania, San Francisco, and Baltimore.

Books by Larson [edit]

Erik Larson talks about In The Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and An American Family in Hitler's Berlin on Bookbits radio.

• Larson, Erik (1992). The Naked Consumer: How Our Private Lives Become Public Commodities (1st ed.). H. Holt. ISBN 0805017550. 
• Larson, Erik (1994). Lethal Passage: How the Travels of a Single Handgun Expose the Roots of America's Gun Crisis (1st ed.). New York: Crown Publishers. ISBN 0517596776. 
• Larson, Erik (1999). Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History (1st ed.). Random House Publishing. ISBN 0-609-60233-0. 
• Larson, Erik (2003). The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (1st ed.). New York: Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-609-60844-4. 
• Larson, Erik (2006). Thunderstruck (1st ed.). New York: Crown Publishers. ISBN 9781400080663. 
• Larson, Erik (2011). In The Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin (1st ed.). New York: Crown Publishers. ISBN 9780307408846. 

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Erik Larson (author)

• Official website
• Official Random House page for The Devil in the White City
• Official Random House page for Isaac's Storm
• Interview at Identity Theory
• Interview on The Devil in the White City, Booknotes, 14 September 2003
• NPR:Fresh Air interview with Larson about In the Garden of the Beasts, May 9, 2011
• C-SPAN Q&A interview with Larson about In the Garden of the Beasts, July 17, 2011

Notes [edit]