E. L. Doctorow

E. L. Doctorow was born in 1931 in the Bronx to parents who were both second-generation Jewish immigrants from Russia. His mother was a pianist and his father sold music. Doctorow grew up in a family of avid readers, and he was drawn to writing early in life, becoming a contributing member of his science-focused high school’s small literary student paper. He attended Kenyon College in Ohio and completed one year of graduate studies in literature at Columbia University in New York before being drafted into military service during the Korean War. After he returned to the United States, he worked for many years as a book editor. He published his first novel, Welcome to Hard Times, in 1960. Doctorow’s body of work—which includes 12 novels, three short story collections, and miscellaneous essays, stage plays, and screenplays—frequently involves reimagining and appropriating historical events and figures to examine themes of American life. Several of his books have been turned into movies. He had three children with his wife. Doctorow continued writing and publishing up until his death in 2015 from complications of lung cancer.