Village in steel. Ng im not going to concentrate much on the book. T my editor, jerry kern, is a huge fan of the book. He has specific questions. Im goingdi to talk more about int a sense the process. Sense. You are now in what you call the dark country of no ideas. That is a term i didnt come up with. My good friend and publicist came up with it when i am looking for a period to describe my next book. When i finish a book i have no other idea on my plate and start from scratch. It is a longish process taking about a year before starting the next project during which i am unpleasant and snappish and pissy. That process do you sort of read not indiscriminate and go from there . I wish i had a way to distill the process. It is mostly chance. I do things that i hope will try to jog things lose in my mind. I will walk through the stacks in my Favorite Library in seattle and just pull books at random and just read to see what the book is about as a way to expose myself to new things and books i would never come across. This has never yielded anything. Never but it is a way to make truly it is a way to make me feel productive. I dont like sitting around and i have a lot of desk toys as some of you know and i can spend a lot of time orchestrating battles with the ken doll and japanese boat train but in the end it doesnt pay college tuition. Of which there were three. There are one. One is still in. One may be going to law school but we are not sure. We sound happily, they didnt. But the way this came about was it goes back, actually, to 1994. The book came out i think the hard cover in 2003. But in 1994 i read a book, great novel by caleb carr called the alienist. How many of you thread booksome. [applause] you read that book . Its about a fictional serial killer in old new york. And when i read that book, i came away thinking, i came away thinking wow, i really got ain good sense of what old 1890s new york must have been like. And then i thought why dont i try to do a nonfiction, a d Nonfiction Book about a historical murder and try and evoke the same thing. Now, this is a long story by the way. So if anybody wants to get up, go the bathroom oh, im sure youre going to be bored to tears by this. Well, you may be, actually, you may be. E so i thought, okay, im going to look into maybe doing a book about a murder. So this is the sausage being made here. G i went back to my library and tookrd out a book called the ensign low media of murder. Encylopedia of murder. I came across many guys and i was excited. The story of had Horror Hotels and acid baths. But i didnt want to do what i refer to as crime porn. Something along the line of gosford park. I kept looking and found the murder i started working on. It wasnt particularly mysterious or interesting. There was a bizarre hurricane connection. I fell in love and it became the book called eye of the storm. When i was done i started thinking about maybe i should look for a murder. I never heard of the worlds exhibition. I had never heard of it. There is nothing on my plate and i will read about the fair. I went back to the same library and they have a large collection about the worlds fair even in seattle and that told me something. But what happened was i started reading the first thing i read was this tedious academic thing about the fair. It was like a marxist, feminist deconstruction of whatever pavilion. It was really mind killing but i was already in that zone so i was willing to read anything. Then i came to the foot notes, a lot of historians tend to put the best stuff in the footnotes because if you get tenure you cannot write about things in the footnotes. First one i came across was the trigger for this book. That was where i read that juicy foot was introduced to consumers for the first time at the worlds fair. Why is that significant . Because i am a big juicy fruit gum chewer and some of you out there. But you know the juicy fruit gum is a private obsession because it is a strange gum. If you are sitting next to someone on the bus chewing juicy fruit gum you think they just threw up. It was like wow, this is fascinating. And the more i read about it from the foot notes and the more i read getting into more interesting books i thought this was an amazing event. That is what brought me back to holmes. I thought im going to do this fair but i need Something Else and holmes provided the dark u juxta juxtaposition to the light city. The title came the first day and stayed every sense. The last lit fest you were telling me it was the devil city and you were insecure about that book. Those of whew who read it i assume most of you, i dont find that as a writer anything to be insecure about that book. Were you surprised at the level of success of that book . I was very surprised. We can go on about the logic of publishing for another half hour. I will mention one thing that happened with the introduction. Two people showed up and during the question and answer period, two young women in their early 30s, stood up and were you know, well groomed they seemed like normal people and they were. But it turned out they said they were direct descendants of the serial killer and they were both corporate lawyers. I asked if they had any weapons. But they one of them said, you know i want to tell you we are so happy about this book because it is the first time anyone did our black sheep relative any justice. And then i swear to god she said as a matter of fact we are having a Family Reunion in the Hudson Valley this saturday and did i want to come . Can we assume the garden of the beast was somehow born out of that . Was perhaps born out of some of your research for devil in white city . Dealing a professor, a woman who worked at the tribune. Zeier zero connection. Really . No connection whatsoever. You could not have said i think i want to do a take on hitler in world war ii . Absolutely not. No, what happened was it had to do with the political situation when i started thinking about the garden of the beast. It was getting creepy with the Bush Administration putting political agents into departments and firing u. S. Attorneys for their political beliefs and it got me thinking this is what happens. People wonder what might it have been like to lib in berlin during hitlers rise . That was the question that popped into my head. It is more convoluted than that. I happened to go to a bookstore trying to be productive and went into a bookstore to look at the works of history and came across this book face out i had never read. 1700 pages. No pictures. Small print. This is why i had never read it right . You are probably thinking this is the bible. 1700 pages, no print and rise and fall of the third right. I had never read it, took it home loved it if one can be said to love a book about the third right. That is when the two things came together. This concern about politics and a political situation and realizing that the author of rise and fall of the third right had actually been there in berlin and had socialized with all of these characters and awful people before they became known as awful people and before the war and before anybody knew how it would turn out. That is what made me start thinking what would that have been like to have lived in berlin when you didnt know the ending. How would it have fell . What would you have seen if i had been in a cafe when hitler is driven by in the open car. Would i have been thrilled or board or text friends saying what is up with that mustache . And then it came to finding the right characters and thank god i came across ambassador dodd and really his daughter. You write in the short introduction to dead wake the Last Crossing of the lusitania you talked about a day in may the depths have been obscured in the mist of history. I am curious why certain things do get buried like that . Part of it must be research along the way. Not hers but others. First of all in the case of lusitania it is not like anyone knew the story. I think most people know lusitania was a boat and it was sunk. That is not a story. You know what i mean . Am i wrong . You are exactly correct. That is what we all pick up from high school. Okay. Lusitania torpedo sinks and next day we are in the war like it is the world war one equivalent of pearl harbor. I was doubting the research of not entering the war after reading this. Questions like in the case of serial killers and the worlds fair or in the case of isaac storm, the storm that destroyed galveston, people in texas knew it teaching it in seventh grade but outside of texas no one knew about it and i didnt know about it until i stumbled upon it in the new york world a newspaper from that era. Again with the killer and the worlds fair stumbled across that too and no one else in chicago knew about the worlds fair of 1893. Especially with a book like this where there have been millions of words written about it you do certainly can and you research the old fashion as a way of gaining light in other books, how do you get around that . That was a big thing. It was a mental obstacle about doing the book about the lusitania. It crossed my mind do to it because i like mari skare maritime history i have been fascinated with this and i would have done a book about the titantic if James Cameron and others did it to death. There was this obstacle of knowing a lot had been done. But something kept gnawing at me. I put it in an archive to look at the materials and i realized i might be able to bring something because this was just a glimpse of what was available and i knew much more was available. There was show much fine textured material, so deep and rich and the whole deal that i thought i think i can actually do something knew here in terms of the history and that is to put on my Alfred Hitchcock hat and do a book of suspense. There were new things in the books and it is hard to do a heavy Research Project without finding things. There too i am surprised at the reception because my fear was people would be burned out on lusitania like i have been there done that. Do you feel with all of these best sellers in your background do you feel any pressure, erik, with each new book after the success of devil . Yes. And it is allevated by a glass of red wine or is there something more to it . Only way to alleviate the pressure is there is pressure and you feel it and anybody who says they dont is probably still drunk. But for me what you have to do is put a list aside and say forget it i am doing a study i want to do because i am interested in this study. I proceed with the idea of if i am interested in this someone else is going to be interested. That is my feeling. So far i havent been wrong. It could be with the next book. It helps i have a sounding board like my daughters who dont mince words. You said your wifes first book is isaac storm. I suppose it is like saying who is your favorite daughter. Do you have a Favorite Book of yours . And why . I dont have a Favorite Book because i cant have a Favorite Book. It is like daughters. I dont have a favorite daughter. I have a favorite wife. You met your wife on a blind date, did you not . I did. Anybody else meet on a blind date with a successful marriage . I dont believe any of you. And we have been married about 30 years. It was a blind date however the first date was terrible. Where did you go . Tell me you didnt go to a library . It was in San Francisco and we went out for a drink and dinner. There was no chemistry and nothing. But then a couple weeks past and i felt i was arrogant and can i use the word asshole . I was an arrogant asshole and called her up on the theory of every woman deserves a second chance. The second date clicked. It was great. There is, given your profession, there is no underestimating the value of having a family that you appreciate and who also, and i can get the sense, understands you and what you do. I have two families. The secret family is not one want to talk about. No value of family is incredible. For stability, maintaining a positive footing and you cant get lost in your own little world as you know when you have first toddlers and then teenagers and then you know kids who need to learn how to drive and all of this stuff. It just keeps you balanced. You have used your kids to your advantage you were telling me when you were here with devil in the white city you didnt have her out crying on the street trying to sell copies. But you had her sing. I did. I dont know if anybody was here for that. But it goes back to the printers road of 2003. There was a song in devil in the white city written for the fair. It is the one that goes dada and i had my daughter do it. She was so cute. I tried to get her to come back for this. She is 21. And she is living in new york. She is like dad it is not happening. Something else happened at the printers row thing of taking questions which will in five minutes. You got asked a seminole chicago question, didnt you . You were talking about the nature of taking eggsquestions and many get up saying i have a question and they will ask and it will be answered and the second part of that question is. But. We had started to talk about it earlier. Devil in the white city the first inkling i got was at the university of chicago, and a number of Chicago PoliceDepartment Homicide cops turned out. I didnt do anything. They came to hear the talk. And there was a bunch of these guys and it was a packed house. During the question and answer period a guy gets up and those who recall the story, chicago won the right to do the worlds fair over new york and washington. And this guy gets up a classic guy, kind of gnarly and he says i just have one question you know chicago gets the fair, new york and washington dont, who put on the fix . The kicker is the guy turned out to be the alderman for hide park. Be careful with your questions. This is a fantastic book. I cannot pick my favorite erik larson book. Devil in the white city is way up there and when i ireread to like i do every couple years it risus to the top and then every couple years he as a new book that tops that. This things hit the book so effectively. Harris swam from the ship. Quote i had no feeling of feet when i went overboard. He felt as comfortable as if he had simply entered a swimming pool. So composed when he came across a floating book he picked it up and examineed it. Examined it i am in awe of where that writing comes from. You are in the presence of a master and a decent guy and a cool guy and i probably think a pretty good father too. Dont be too much in awe because if you read that correctly it should have been fear not feet. Well my eyes are going. I had no fear as i went overboard. Erik larson, line up and ask questions. You have to step up to the microphone. Just shout your question. Did he go to the Family Reunion . No. Those are the kind of questions i like. I like Historical Books in general. Doris goodwin and such. I love your books and you have a different style almost like a novel. I feel like your books have a theme. Do you write to get a message across as opposed to getting history across . No. It will be great if we can take 50 questions in 15 minutes if every answer is no. No but i never set out to flog any message i really want to get across but invariable there is something that emerges in the course of research that is not intended but does come out, if you want it to be a message. Like in isaac storm about the hurricane the story is about hubris guy who thinks he knew everything and proved him wrong. And you know i spoke with one that came closest to starting with the idea of a message was in the garden of beast. I had no intention of making any kind of like getting up on a soap box and preaching. I let that story, once i found the characters you have to go with what you have got. I love nuance. I love nuance characters. In the case of garden of the beast, i have been criticized by people for including martha in the book or not being more judgmental in the book about the ambassador and his daughter and not taking a more judgmental stand on hitler and so forth but jove to tell it the way it is. It doesnt take away. It isnt part of the architecture of the book. Back in the day when you used to appear at smaller venues like out in forest park. I saw you doing an author event for devil in the white city. You mention the types of story where you have two and you bring it together at the end i believe you called it a parallel narrative dual narrative. You said it was difficult to do and that particularly book would be the last dual narrative and obviously it wasnt. So my question is what attracts you to the dual narrative and is this your last dual narrative . Are you a stalker . I never want to do another one because it is like writing two books instead of one. You are writing two books. I did say publically i would not do another dual narrative and the next book was thunderstruck and it was completely by accident believe me i told my wife you know i am going to get attacked for being derivative of my own book. But it was like i just love the story and that became the story of the second most notorious murder in british history. That was the second last one i did in my view. I dont like at it as a dual narrative or this as a dual narrative. So yeah. I dont have a question so much but i want to thank you for all of the great books you are providing. I have been telling friends that if you read the book you are only reading half the story. I mean if you look at the notes toward the back of the book he provides so much more information you are not getting if you dont read them. For example, he puts in his foot notes where you can go to a website and see film of people boarding the boat and film of the boat leafving the harbor. It was so nice you offer all of this Additional Information for the readers. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you very much for your comment because i have learned people love the foot notes and i love people that love the foot notes because that is the genesis of devil in the white city. I worked very hard at my foot notes to squeeze in the things that would not fit into the narrative sometimes they are far field. Young lady . Can you seen or are you aware of the photo Stans Company production of the devil in the white city . I know of it but i have not seen it. Do you recommend it . Highly. When i read the book i will make you a deal. When the announcement came out, i was very anxious to go see the production and i thoroughly enjoyed it. I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the book . Did you read the book . Yeah. Let me interrupt and ask there is always