A Painter with Words: with Lavish Detail, Erik Larson Writes Books That Bring History to Life

DANNY HEITMAN, FORUM EDITOR A PAINTER WITH WORDS: WITH LAVISH DETAIL, ERIK LARSON WRITES BOOKS THAT BRING HISTORY TO LIFE “People came to it as a political elixir,” Erik Larson said of The Splendid and the Vile. “People seem to be coming to the book for comfort.” On most mornings, best-selling author Erik Larson sits down The Devil in the White City, about a serial killer loose during at his desk in his Manhattan apartment at 5:30 and begins to the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893; In the Garden of Beasts, write, fortified by a cup of black coffee and at least one Oreo which chronicles an American ambassador’s struggles during cookie. On bad days, he allows himself two. the rise of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich; and Dead Wake, the This year, in spite of a global pandemic, Larson has had his story of the sinking of the Lusitania, which brought the share of good days. The Splendid and the Vile, his account of United States into World War I. the German blitz of London and how it shaped the destiny Larson, who’s 66, grew up in Freeport, Long Island, a of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his family, New York City suburb. As a teen, he dreamed of being a dominated the best seller list during the early weeks of the cartoonist, his hopes dashed after The New Yorker rejected COVID-19 lockdown. The story of stiff-upper-lip Londoners his frequent submissions. His books, though, retain a deeply weathering a profound crisis inspired many Americans as they visual sensibility. Paragraphs shimmer with hundreds of little faced uncertain times. “People came to it as a political elixir,” particulars that, like layers of brushstrokes, add luminous Larson told Forum. “People seem to be coming to the book depth to the pictures he creates on the page. for comfort.” A passage from The Splendid and the Vile about London Larson’s apartment is on the fourth floor, and there are ten shortly before a Nazi air assault illustrates his technique: floors above him. He enjoys his big windows, which afford a The day was warm and still, the sky above a rising haze. view of the street life below. “In the morning I love watching Temperatures by afternoon were in the nineties, odd for London. people setting off to walk their dogs in the park,” Larson told People thronged Hyde Park and lounged on chairs set out beside readers in an essay on his website. “The outbound dogs tug the Serpentine. Shoppers jammed the stores of Oxford Street and ahead with anticipation; the golden retrievers among them Piccadilly. The giant barrage balloons overhead cast lumbering look as though they are trying their best to be good dogs, shadows on the streets below. After the August air raid when but inside are screaming, ‘come on please can we pick up bombs first fell on London proper, the city had retreated back the pace.’” into a dream of invulnerability, punctuated now and then by Larson’s take on the ebb and flow of a Gotham day is the false alerts whose once-terrifying novelty was muted by the failure same kind of view he’s brought to his books. It’s a vantage of bombers to appear. The late-summer heat imparted an air of just high enough to give him and his readers a sweep of the languid complacency. narrative, yet close enough to the ground to yield lively detail. Larson’s storytelling style has been compared to the That way of seeing is irresistible to Larson’s legion of fans. methods of fiction, but he learned how to write while Most of his books have been literary blockbusters, including working as a newspaperman. He studied Russian at the 18 PHI KAPPA PHI FORUM University of Pennsylvania room floor. “I’m generally not happy unless I have 100 and got a graduate degree percent more material than I actually need,” Larson in journalism at Columbia said. His manuscript for the Churchill book was initially University, eventually ending 860 pages long. The up at The Wall Street Journal. finished book, minus The paper’s Page One features notes and index, is – short, crisply written color just under 500 pages. stories that are meant to Churchill’s entertain as well as edify – gave presence in the book him a crash course in how to created a mammoth engage a popular audience. subject for research. A Wall Street Journal editor, Larson was aware Bernard Wysocki, snipped up that many other a paper draft of one of Larson’s authors had written articles, taping it back together about Churchill, with passages rearranged which presented its to better tell the story. “He own challenges. sort of unfurled it,” Larson “It’s easily the recalled. The reworked draft toughest book I’ve was brightened as Wysocki ever written,” Larson held it up to the light. “It had said. “Probably not a kind of translucent, gossamer a day went by when feel,” Larson said. On a deeper I didn’t ask myself, level, the text was even more ‘What in the world illuminating. With scissors and are you doing? Why tape, Wysocki was teaching did you take on Larson how to build a narrative. this book?’” Many years later, Larson Larson had several still uses scissors and tape to Churchill scholars rework paper drafts of his work, vet his manuscript. preferring his method to digital “They suggested editing. He likes to place a about thirty things physical copy of his draft on they felt I needed to the floor so that he can see adjust,” he said. Since how all the pieces of the story its release, The Splendid and the Vile has drawn positive fit together. “There’s nothing reviews, even among Churchillians. like being able to stand there Larson often works on drafts when he travels, which from a promontory and being complicates his cut-and-tape method. He dislikes able to see it that way . It’s a checking his airline luggage, and scissors aren’t allowed foolproof way of being able to in carry-on items. Grudgingly, he buys new scissors see the organic structure of the at each destination, then leaves them behind in hotel book,” he said. rooms when he checks out. He wryly wonders if the Larson’s scissors often get a workout. He usually chops his presence of a traveler leaving scissors across Europe has manuscripts a good bit, leaving lots of material on the cutting attracted the attention of police. WINTER 2020 19 PAINTER WITH WORDS Larson enjoys traveling for pleasure, In his own reading life, though, and his research for books takes him Larson doesn’t like to quickly gobble on the road, too. Although he can up books he really likes. “I will read now afford to hire researchers, Larson it much slower, ten pages at a time,” has avoided that option. He’s used a he said. He can still remember in the fact-checker, but he prefers to do his 1980s lingering each evening over a own legwork. successive handful of pages in John Le “I love the archival phase so much Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. much. ... It’s like a detective story,” As Larson reads, even for pleasure, Larson said. “When I’m in an archive, he’s learning new things about how I don’t know what I’m looking for to make sentences into paragraphs, until I’ve found it.” Even the prospect then into stories. From time to time, of a juicy find in a research collection as a writing teacher, he’s shared what can be a thrill. “Sometimes, I feel he’s learned in a life of reading and like a little insect,” Larson said. “My writing. Larson seems ambivalent antennae start to vibrate.” about what he’s brought to the Coming across a period news classroom. He has doubts about the clipping, for example, Larson knew value of formal writing instruction. “I he had a story to tell about a monster feel that if you think too much about hurricane that devastated Galveston, what you do, it corrupts the process,” Texas, in 1900. The resulting book, he said. Isaac’s Storm, defined what would Even so, Larson takes pride in his become Larson’s signature approach, mentorship of students. “I think I’m a telling a big story through a small set good teacher,” Larson told Forum. “I Erik Larson, author of The Splendid and the Vile. Photo provided by Nina Subin. of memorable characters. He credits think the things I’m able to convey to his longtime agent, David Black, students come as a complete surprise.” with helping him see more clearly An obvious lesson from Larson’s how history lives through people. professional routine is that good Larson said his initial treatment of the writing involves effort. His desk is a Larson has doubts about Galveston tragedy, a general history of large table made of unfinished wood, a the storm, prompted an encouraging variation of a craftsman’s workbench. the value of formal thumbs-down from Black: “This is not Each day, he dresses like a tradesman what it needs to be. What’s missing is before he arrives at his keyboard. “My writing instruction: a sense of story.” standard uniform is jeans and casual For Larson, the polite rejection shirt – long sleeves, rolled up,” he said. – and its suggestion of a fix – was Showing up at the keyboard, he ‘I feel that if you think career-changing.

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