Hungry Dogs with James Patterson Erik Larson on the Story Behind Devil in the White City, Churchill & Why He Won't Tell You His Next Book
Mar 11, 2026
Erik Larson, bestselling narrative historian behind The Devil in the White City and The Splendid and the Vile, discusses his hands-on archival research and why he never invents dialogue. He tells how chance discoveries sparked dual narratives, recounts finding hidden Churchill diary entries, and explains his rule about keeping upcoming projects secret.
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Do Your Own Archive Work To Follow Instinct
- Do your own archival research when possible to follow your instinct rather than delegating it to researchers.
- Erik Larson explains he rarely knows what he's looking for in archives and trusts his own instinct to find surprising primary material.
Narrative Nonfiction Requires Rich Primary Sources
- Narrative nonfiction needs dense primary material such as memoirs, letters, telegrams, and court transcripts to create scenes without inventing dialogue.
- Larson says those sources let readers feel like they're reading fiction while remaining faithful to facts.
How Juicy Fruit Footnotes Sparked Devil In The White City
- The Devil in the White City idea came from digging footnotes in a boring PhD-style book and finding Juicy Fruit gum and the 1893 World's Fair link to H.H. Holmes.
- Larson realized the fair's 'White City' offered a darkness/light juxtaposition with the serial killer, forming the book's two narratives.
