E. L. Doctorow (1931–2015)

Author of Ragtime: A Novel

49+ Works 23,289 Members 660 Reviews 51 Favorited

About the Author

E. L. (Edgar Lawrence) Doctorow was born on January 6, 1931, in the Bronx, New York. He received an A.B. in philosophy in 1952 from Kenyon College and did graduate work at Columbia University. He served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps from 1953-1955. He began his career as a script reader for CBS show more Television and Columbia Pictures and as a senior editor for the New American Library. He was editor-in-chief for Dial Press from 1964 to 1969, where he also served as vice president and publisher in his last year on staff. It was at this time that he decided to write full time. He wrote novels, short stories, essays, and a play. His debut novel, Welcome to Hard Times, was published in 1960 and was adapted into a film in 1967. His other works include, Loon Lake, The Waterworks, The March, Homer and Langley, and Andrew's Brain. He won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1986 for World's Fair and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 1976 for Ragtime, which was adapted into a film in 1981 and a Broadway musical in 1998. Billy Bathgate received the PEN/Faulkner Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the William Dean Howells Medal in 1990. The Book of Daniel and Billy Bathgate were also adapted into films. He received the 2013 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters for his outstanding achievement in fiction writing. He died of complications from lung cancer on July 21, 2015 at the age of 84. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Includes the names: E Doctorow, E.L. Doctrow, E L Doctorow, E.L. Doctorov, E.L. Doctorow, D.L. Doctorow, Doctorow E. L., MR E L Doctorow, ed. E.L. Doctorow, Edgar L. Doctorow, by E. L. Doctorow, Ed. E.L. Doctorow, Edgar L. Doctorow, editor Doctorow E.L., Doctorow Edgar Lawrence, Edgar Laurence Doctorow, Edgar Lawrence Doctopow, Е. Л. Доктороу, El Doctorow Billy Bathgate, E. L.; E. L. Doctorow (Author) Doctorow, Едгар Лорънс Доктороу

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Works by E. L. Doctorow

Popular Recent

Ragtime: A Novel (1975) 6,282 copies

The March (2005) 3,024 copies

Billy Bathgate (1989) 2,284 copies

Homer & Langley (2009) 2,009 copies

City of God (2000) 1,553 copies

The Book of Daniel: A Novel (1971) 1,551 copies

The Waterworks (1995) 1,404 copies

World's Fair (1985) 1,289 copies

Loon Lake (1980) 817 copies

Andrew's Brain (2014) 614 copies

Welcome to Hard Times (1960) 503 copies

Lives of the Poets: Six Stories and a Novella (1984) 439 copies

The Best American Short Stories 2000 (2000) — Editor — 396 copies

Sweet Land Stories (2004) 373 copies

All the Time in the World: New and Selected Stories (2011) 198 copies

Creationists: Selected Essays: 1993-2006 (2006) 122 copies

Doctorow: Collected Stories (2016) 89 copies

Drinks Before Dinner (1978) 79 copies

Jack London, Hemingway, and the Constitution: Selected Essays, 1977-1992 (1993) 78 copies

Billy Bathgate / World's Fair / Loon Lake (1994) 57 copies

Reporting the Universe (2003) 36 copies

E.L. Doctorow: Essays and Conversations (Ontario Review Press Critical Series) (1983) 14 copies

A House on the Plains 13 copies

Big As Life (1966) 12 copies

Lamentation: 9/11 (2002) 10 copies

Three Screenplays (2003) 7 copies

Citizen Doctorow: Notes on Art & Politics: The Nation Essays 1978-2015 (2014) 7 copies

Ragtime, the march, and homer & langley three bestselling novels (2013) 3 copies

Jolene [2008 film] (2008) — Writer — 2 copies

The Paris Review 92 1984 Summer (1984) — Contributor — 2 copies

Jolene: A Life [short story] 2 copies

Walter John Harmon (in Storie di una dolce terra) 2 copies

The Book of Daniel; Ragtime; City of God 2 copies

ʹ ơ æ ð ł £ Ơ ư đ ð æ: ơ ı £ ʺ ơ ł (2013) 1 copy

Παγκόσμια έκθεση (1997) 1 copy

An American Tragedy 1 copy

a grande feira de e l doctorow pela companhia das letra Ed. 1988 (1988) 1 copy

אגם הטבלנים 1 copy

The Hunter [short story] 1 copy

Bad man from Bodie 1 copy

The people's text: A citizen reads the Constitution (1992) 1 copy

Reading for My Life: Writings, 1958-2008 1 copy

Willi [short story] 1 copy

The Writer in the Family [short story] 1 copy

The Unfeeling President 1 copy

The Writer in the Family / the Leather Man (American Prose Library) [audio] (1990) 1 copy

Bambino, morto, nel Giardino delle Rose (in Storie di una dolce terra) 1 copy

Baby Wilson (in Storie di una dolce terra) 1 copy

Erich Fischl : Scenes and Sequences: Fifty Eight Monotypes 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

The Secret Agent (1907) — Introduction, some editions — 6,601 copies

Sister Carrie (1900) — Introduction, some editions — 4,058 copies

Arrowsmith (1925) — Afterword, some editions — 2,102 copies

The 42nd Parallel (1930) — Foreword, some editions — 1,641 copies

A World of Ideas : Conversations With Thoughtful Men and Women About American Life Today and the Ideas Shaping Our… (1989) — Interviewee — 550 copies

The Best American Short Stories 2003 (2003) — Contributor — 470 copies

The Best American Short Stories 2002 (2002) — Contributor — 466 copies

American Gothic Tales (1996) — Contributor — 465 copies

Writers on Writing: Collected Essays from the New York Times (2001) — Contributor — 447 copies

The Call of the Wild, White Fang & To Build a Fire (Modern Library Classics) (1998) — Introduction, some editions — 296 copies

Karoo (1998) — Introduction, some editions — 282 copies

Writing New York: A Literary Anthology (1998) — Contributor — 281 copies

The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now (2008) — Contributor — 156 copies

Granta 24: Inside Intelligence (1988) — Contributor — 152 copies

The Best American Essays 1992 (1992) — Contributor — 138 copies

The Ecco Anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction (2008) — Contributor — 126 copies

The Schocken Book of Contemporary Jewish Fiction (1992) — Contributor — 125 copies

Growing Up Ethnic in America: Contemporary Fiction About Learning to Be American (1999) — Contributor — 102 copies

Writing New York: A Literary Anthology (Expanded 10th-Anniversary Edition) (2008) — Contributor — 93 copies

Nation 1865–1990: Selections from the Independent Magazine of Politics and Culture (1990) — Introduction — 88 copies

The Best American Magazine Writing 2003 (2003) — Contributor — 71 copies

The Best American Magazine Writing 2002 (2002) — Contributor — 68 copies

Dark Arrows: Great Stories of Revenge (1985) — Contributor — 61 copies

The Best American Short Stories 1985 (1985) — Contributor — 61 copies

The Jewish Writer (1998) — Contributor — 53 copies

The Best of the Marx Brothers (2007) — Introduction — 40 copies

The Good Parts: The Best Erotic Writing in Modern Fiction (2000) — Contributor — 34 copies

Who We Are: On Being (and Not Being) a Jewish American Writer (2005) — Contributor — 27 copies

American Review 20 (1974) — Contributor — 11 copies

Het derde Testament : Joodse verhalen (1995) — Contributor, some editions — 7 copies

Voices of Sag Harbor: A Village Remembered (2007) — Preface — 5 copies

AT RANDOM NO. 6 FALL 1993 - VOLUME 2 NUMBER 3 [BOOKS AND BOOKPEPOLE FROM RANDOM 1 copy

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Common Knowledge

Legal name: Doctorow, Edgar Lawrence
Birthdate: 1931-01-06
Date of death: 2015-07-21
Burial location: Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York, USA
Gender: male
Nationality: USA
Birthplace: The Bronx, New York, USA
Place of death: New York, New York, USA
Cause of death: cancer (lung)
Places of residence: New York, New York, USA
New Rochelle, New York, USA
Germany
Education: Bronx High School of Science, New York, New York, USA
Kenyon College (AB|1952)
Columbia University
Occupations: novelist
editor
professor
Relationships: Henslee, Helen (spouse)
Organizations: American Academy of Arts and Letters
New American Library
Dial Press
New York University
US Army
Awards and honors: State Author of New York/Edith Wharton Citation of Merit (1989-91)
Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement (2002)
National Humanities Medal (1998)
American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award (1976)
F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Fiction (1999)
American Philosophical Society (2007) (show all 8)
American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction (2013)
Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction (2014)

Members

Discussions

Group Read, November 2017: City of God in 1001 Books to read before you die (November 2017)

Reviews

Homer & Langley: A Novel by E.L. Doctorow

A sensitive fictional treatment of the NYC 1920s "hoarders" Homer & Langley Collyer. The author attempts to get inside their heads and explain their curious lifestyle. Since it is a novel, Doctorow took liberty with some of the facts, including the timeline. A gripping look at dysfunctional family.

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