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Erik Larson (author)

American author and journalist

Summary

American author and journalist

Field	Value
name	Erik Larson
image	Erik Larson 03B.jpg
alt	Headshot of author Erik Larson
birth_date
birth_place	New York City, U.S.
education	University of Pennsylvania (BA)
Columbia University (MA)
website

Columbia University (MA) Erik Larson (born January 3, 1954) is an American journalist and author of mostly historical nonfiction books. His books include Isaac's Storm (1999), The Devil in the White City (2003), In the Garden of Beasts (2011), and Dead Wake (2015). The Devil in the White City won the 2004 Edgar Award in the Best Fact Crime category, among other awards.

Early life and education

Larson was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island, New York. 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. He was inspired to go into journalism after seeing the movie All the President's Men.

Writing career

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. His magazine stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, and other publications.

Books

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

Larson has written a number of books, mostly historical nonfiction. In a 2016 interview with the Knoxville Mercury, Larson stated he does all of his own research, asking, "why should I let anybody else have that fun?" He included among his literary inspirations David McCullough, Barbara Tuchman, David Halberstam, and Walter Lord.

Larson's 2006 book, Thunderstruck, intersperses the story of Hawley Harvey Crippen with that of Guglielmo Marconi and the invention of radio.

Larson released his first novel in audiobook format only, titled No One Goes Alone, on September 28, 2021.

Teaching and public speaking

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

Personal life

Larson has lived in Philadelphia; Bristol, Pennsylvania; San Francisco; and Baltimore. He and his wife, Dr. Christine Gleason, have three daughters. They reside in New York City and maintain a home in Seattle, Washington.

Works

Title	Year	Publisher	Subject matter	Interviews, presentations, and reviews	Comments
The Naked Consumer: How Our Private Lives Become Public Commodities	1992	Henry Holt and Company	Consumer privacy, Market research
Lethal Passage	1994	Crown Publishers	Gun culture in the U.S., Gun law in the U.S., Gun politics in the U.S., Gun violence in the U.S.		The subtitle for the 1994 hardcover version is How the Travels of a Single Handgun Expose the Roots of America's Gun Crisis; The subtitle of the 1995 paperback version is The Story of a Gun.
Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History	1999	Random House	Isaac Cline, 1900 Galveston hurricane	Presentation by Larson on Isaac's Storm, November 6, 1999, C-SPAN
Presentation by Larson on Isaac's Storm, August 22, 2000, C-SPAN
Book group discussion on Isaac's Storm, November 21, 2005, C-SPAN
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America	2002	Crown Publishers	World's Columbian Exposition, Daniel Burnham, H. H. Holmes	Presentation by Larson on The Devil in the White City, February 18, 2003, C-SPAN
Booknotes interview with Larson on The Devil in the White City, September 14, 2003, C-SPAN
Book group discussion on The Devil in the White City, October 13, 2005, C-SPAN
Thunderstruck	2006	Crown Publishers	Hawley Harvey Crippen, Guglielmo Marconi	Presentation by Larson on Thunderstruck, June 9, 2007, C-SPAN
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin	2011	Crown Publishers	William Dodd, Nazification of Germany	Fresh Air interview with Larson on In the Garden of the Beasts, May 2, 2011, National Public Radio
Presentation by Larson on In the Garden of the Beasts, May 23, 2011, C-SPAN
Q&A interview with Larson on In the Garden of the Beasts, July 24, 2011, C-SPAN
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania	2015	Crown Publishers	Sinking of the RMS Lusitania	Q&A interview with Larson on Dead Wake, March 29, 2015, C-SPAN
Presentation by Larson on Dead Wake, March 27, 2015, C-SPAN
Presentation by Larson on Dead Wake, June 6, 2015, C-SPAN
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz	2020	Penguin Random House	The Blitz, Winston Churchill in the Second World War	Interview with Larson on The Splendid and the Vile, May 5, 2020, C-SPAN
No One Goes Alone	2021	Penguin Random House	William James		Fiction; Audiobook only.
The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War	2024	Crown Books	American Civil War	Erik Larson On The Dawn Of The Civil War, May 1, 2024, NPR
UNUM Chat: Ken Burns and Erik Larson, May 2024, Ken Burns

References

(March 24, 2003). "Erik Larson". Identity Theory.
(2003). "Erik Larson, 2003 National Book Award Finalist: Nonfiction, The National Book Foundation".
"About The Author - Erik Larson : Best-selling Author of In the Garden of Beasts".
Everett, Matthew. "[http://www.knoxmercury.com/2016/03/17/qa-author-erik-larson/ Q&A: Author Erik Larson]." ''Knoxville Mercury'', 16 March 2016.
Baker, Kevin. (2006-11-05). "Thunderstruck. By Erik Larson - Books - Review". The New York Times.
(March 29, 2011). "Erik Larson: the devil is in the details".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

columbia-university-graduate-school-of-journalism-alumni american-male-journalists american-social-sciences-writers edgar-award-winners 1954-births people-from-freeport,-new-york living-people writers-from-brooklyn university-of-pennsylvania-alumni san-francisco-state-university-faculty university-of-oregon-faculty johns-hopkins-university-faculty the-wall-street-journal-people time-(magazine)-people

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