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Erik Larson

Biography

Erik Larson

Erik Larson is the author of six New York Times bestsellers, most recently THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, which examines how Winston Churchill and his “Secret Circle” went about surviving the German air campaign of 1940-41. Larson’s THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY is set to be a Hulu limited series; his IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS is under option by Tom Hanks for a feature film. He recently published an audio-original ghost story, NO ONE GOES ALONE, which has been optioned by Chernin Entertainment, in association with Netflix. His THUNDERSTRUCK has been optioned by Sony Pictures Television for a limited TV series. Larson lives in Manhattan with his wife, who is a writer and retired neonatologist; they have three grown daughters.

Books by Erik Larson

by Erik Larson - History, Nonfiction

On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next 12 months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally --- and willing to fight to the end. In THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people “the art of being fearless."

by Erik Larson - History, Nonfiction

The sinking of the Lusitania is a story that many of us think we know but don’t, and Erik Larson tells it thrillingly, switching between hunter and hunted while painting a larger portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era. DEAD WAKE brings to life a cast of evocative characters --- from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope to President Woodrow Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love.

by Erik Larson - History, Nonfiction

In 1933, William Dodd, the new American ambassador, arrives in Berlin, just as Hitler has been appointed chancellor. Dodd and his family watch as Germany falls under Hitler’s spell and the country is transformed. Why did the U.S. dismiss its ambassador’s warnings? Erik Larson takes a cold, hard look at this deplorable period in history.

by Erik Larson - History, Nonfiction

In THUNDERSTRUCK, Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men—Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication—whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time.

written by Erik Larson, read by Edward Herrmann - Audiobook, History, Nonfiction

Using meteorologist Isaac Cline's own telegrams, letters and reports, the testimony of scores of survivors, and our latest understanding of the science of hurricanes, Erik Larson builds a chronicle of one man's heroic struggle and fatal miscalculation in the face of a storm of unimaginable magnitude. Riveting, powerful and unbearably suspenseful, ISAAC'S STORM is the story of what can happen when human arrogance meets the great uncontrollable force of nature.

by Erik Larson - History, Nonfiction

Bringing Chicago circa 1893 to vivid life, Erik Larson's spellbinding bestseller intertwines the true tale of two men --- the brilliant architect behind the legendary 1893 World's Fair, striving to secure America's place in the world; and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death.