Doctorow, E. L.
Doctorow, E. L. , Edgar Laurence Doctorow ( 1931 – ),American novelist who began his career as a script reader for Columbia pictures. His first novel, Welcome to the Hard Times ( 1960 ), reworks the western as a semi-philosophical treatise. The Book of Daniel ( 1971 ) is a fictionalized account of the Rosenberg trial and has much in common with R. Coover's The Public Burning ( 1977 ). His most commercially successful novel, Ragtime ( 1975 ), blends real-life figures of the early 20th cent. with a cast of emblematic Jewish and African-American characters. Subsequent work focuses on the Great Depression and its aftermath and includes Loon Lake ( 1980 ), World's Fair ( 1985 ), and Billy Bathgate ( 1989 ). The Waterworks ( 1994 ) centres on life in 19th- cent. New York.
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