Tuesday, October 24, 2006; 3:00 PM
In July 1910, a sensational news story spread around the world: An American doctor wanted in London for the gruesome murder of his wife -- she was poisoned, flayed, deboned and buried in the couple's basement -- was fleeing justice on an ocean liner headed from Antwerp to Quebec City. He was accompanied by a young woman, his lover, who was disguised as a boy. Another ship, bearing the Scotland Yard inspector in charge of the case, gave chase. Through the new technology of wireless communication, which miraculously allowed ships at sea to communicate with one another and with people on land, newspapers far and wide breathlessly reported the chase as it happened. In Thunderstruck , Erik Larson tells the story of the events leading to this moment. (
Erik Larson , author of "Thunderstruck, " will be online to field questions and comments about his latest work.
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Erik Larson also is the author of best-selling historical renderings such as "The Devil in the White City" and "Isaac's Storm."
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Erik Larson: Hi, Erik Larson here, from the Hotel Burnham in Chicago. Welcome all!
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Harrisburg, Pa.: How did you come to learn of this 1910 murder? Obviously, it is fascinating. How do you first come across it?
Erik Larson: One afternoon, having put aside many other ideas, I happened to be musing about wireless and its history. One thing led to another and I came to a very nice Web site called MarconiCalling. As I read through a directory of entries in the Web site I came across the name Crippen, and was quite startled. I knew that name because of something my mother had told me when I was a kid. I don't think I ever knew details. All I kept over the years was a recollection that there was something romantic about the Crippen saga. Seeing it mentioned there in the context of a history of wireless and Marconi was very strange. The rest, for course, was history...
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Manassas, Va.: I loved "Isaac's Storm" and thought it would make a great movie. Was this ever a possibility?
Erik Larson: I've always thought it'd be a great movie too. So far it's been optioned twice, but no one's actually made a film. One discouraging factor is simply the expense likely to be incurred in trying to replicate the storm in a convincing matter. But, hey, we'll see. Perhaps someday we'll all get to meet Isaac Cline on the big screen. I'm thinking he should be played by Harrison Ford, but then I have this habit of thinking all my characters should be played by Ford.
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Paris: Would you care to comment on Marconi's involvement with fascist Italy? What about Marconi's contribution to technique? Was he a pioneer, a visionary, an industrialist, all three?
Erik Larson: Marconi did, unfortunately, endorse fascism, though according to his daughter toward the end of his life he became disillusioned with Mussolini and, especially, Hitler. I don't spend a lot of time on this in Thunderstruck, as my book is really not meant to be a biography. My focus is exclusively on Marconi's early drive to send signals across the Atlantic, at a time when such a feat was thought to be absolutely impossible. So he was a visionary and pioneer both. The amazing thing about Marconi was that he had an instinctive sense that what he hoped to achieve could in fact be done, even though the most prominent physicists of the age dismissed it as outside the known laws of physics. The question of who gets credit for inventing -- as in INVENTING -- wireless is a saga in itself, and one that has been played out in innumerable patent battles. What Marconi beyond doubt gets credit for is turning wireless from a novel and much-doubted concept into a practical means of communication.
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Washington, D.C.: Mr. Larson. I'm very excited that you have a new book out. I really enjoyed "Isaac's Storm," which I read last summer just before Katrina hit, and "Devil in the White City." Your books, despite being about different subjects, seem to connect in that they have a theme about infrastructure, whether that's telecommunications or urban response and development issues. Would you agree with that assessment? Where do you think you will turn to for your next subject?
Erik Larson: As to infrastructure, any likeness in theme is purely accidental. I simply go where my books take me. And I certainly wish I knew the subject for my next book, because I'd be a lot less ornery around the house. I've considered and discarded at least a dozen ideas.
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Maryland: Did you know that your book "Devil in the White City" is required reading for about a third of the freshman entering Ohio State? Have you spoke to this group? How did they receive a novel based in what may seem to them and obscure time frame?
Erik Larson: I can't tell you how pleased I am that my book is required reading, and not just at Ohio State. Though part of me feels as though I ought to apologize for inflicting my work on all those readers. I have not yet spoken to any group at Ohio State. Having been forced to read the book, they might greet me with pitchforks and torches....
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Arlington, Va.: How much/what kind of research did you do for "Thunderstruck"? How long did it take you?
Erik Larson: The research for "Thunderstruck" was a delight, though the journey in the end was pretty exhausting. Over the space of about two years I traveled to Rome, London, Oxford, Munich, Bologna, Ottawa, Cape Cod and Nova Scotia. The National Archives of Britain were especially fruitful -- I found literally thousands of pages of police and prosecution documents.
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Seattle: Hi Erik -- thoroughly enjoyed "Devil" and read that two movies may be in production...any truth to that statement?
Erik Larson: A movie is indeed in the works. A screenplay has been written. The director is ready to go. Money's been lined up (or so I understand). What remains now is to find some really great and "bankable" actors to sign on for the key roles. I gather the investors won't free the money until satisfied the right people are on board--as apparently is the case with many movies. But what do I know? I'm merely an ink-stained wretch. I told the director and screenwriter up front that I did not want or need to be involved, and I intend to honor that promise.
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Lanham, Md.: I thoroughly enjoyed "Devil in the White City" and happened to read it on a visit to Chicago. Congratulations for completely sucking me in! I found myself more involved in Burnham's story than that of the serial killer. What drew you into his world?
Erik Larson: What drew me into Burnham's world? Dumb luck, actually -- a very positive force in my life. But I'm very glad you found yourself so caught up with his side of the saga. It's really a classical narrative -- a man sets out to do the impossible and, against incredible odds, succeeds, as chaos erupts all around. At this moment, interestingly, I'm sitting here in Chicago in an office in the Hotel Burnham, which occupies one of Burnham's major early buildings, the Reliance. A very odd feeling. Once upon a time this building towered over its neighbors. Needless to say that's no longer the case. Still, it is a lovely building. Very light, very airy. But, I digress....
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Beverly Hills, Fla.: I think I read that the first wireless station in North America was Signal Hill in Newfoundland. Is that correct?
Erik Larson: Signal Hill is where Marconi made his first successful attempt at transatlantic communication. It was quite an ordeal. He used kites and balloons to lift long wires into the sky, and one one particularly stormy day heard the three-dot signals sent from England by his men. At first his critics doubted his success, and some continued forever after to challenge whether he actually heard those first signals. But history of course has proved Marconi's hunch correct, that signals could indeed be sent all the way across the ocean.
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Erik Larson: Well, it's been a pleasure. In the midst of this session I used my cell phone to make a call, and once again had to marvel at the fact that what we take now completely for granted -- wireless communication -- was once so novel that some thought Marconi had tapped into the realm where ghosts lived.
Goodbye everybody. Travel safe and drink good wine.
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