One of the most popular history writers in America today, Erik Larson will be in Knoxville on May 13, at the Bijou Theatre, in an onstage conversation with our Jack Neely. Larson became best known for his 2003 book, The Devil in the White City, which told two tales about the extravagantly influential Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 and the serial killer who operated in the exposition’s shadow. Since then, he’s written several more narratives based on fresh research, including The Splendid and the Vile, In the Garden of Beasts, and Dead Wake. His latest, fresh out in May, is The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, a narrative about the five months between the election of Lincoln in 1860 and the shelling of Fort Sumter.
It’s a benefit for the Friends of the Knox County Library. The Bijou is a great place for it. The 1909 auditorium was well known to hundreds of Civil War veterans, as well as to many who had grown up in slavery—but moreover, it’s built into the back of the ca. 1816 Lamar House, the hotel that played several roles during the Civil War, and whose saloon and barber shop were centers for discussion of secession and Fort Sumter during the period Larson writes about.
Premium tickets come with a signed copy of the book, which we can attest is a fascinating read. Even though we know how it turns out, it’s hard to put down.
