E.L. Doctorow
E.L. Doctorow: A Master of American Literature
===============
Full Name and Common Aliases
Edward Lewis Doctorow was a renowned American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. He is commonly known as E.L. Doctorow.
Birth and Death Dates
Born on January 6, 1931, in the Bronx, New York City, Doctorow passed away on July 21, 2015, at the age of 84.
Nationality and Profession(s)
Doctorow was an American novelist and essayist, with a career spanning over five decades. He is best known for his works of historical fiction that blend fact and fiction to create a unique narrative voice.
Early Life
Growing up in the Bronx during the Great Depression had a profound impact on Doctorow's life and writing. His family was Jewish, and he often drew upon their experiences and traditions in his work. Doctorow attended the City College of New York, where he studied literature and began to develop his writing skills.
Major Accomplishments
Doctorow's breakthrough novel, Welcome to the Club, published in 1965, established him as a rising star in American literary circles. However, it was Ragtime (1975) that catapulted him to international acclaim. This sprawling historical epic weaves together real and fictional characters from different eras of American history, cementing Doctorow's reputation as a master of the genre.
Notable Works or Actions
Some of Doctorow's notable works include:
Ragtime (1975) - A sweeping historical novel that explores the lives of a family, a black jazz musician, and a wealthy industrialist.
Loon Lake (1989) - A novel about a family's struggles with love, loss, and identity set against the backdrop of the American West.
* City of God (2000) - A historical epic that reimagines the lives of a group of New Yorkers from different eras.
Throughout his career, Doctorow was awarded numerous honors for his contributions to literature. He received three National Book Critics Circle Awards and two Guggenheim Fellowships among many other accolades.
Impact and Legacy
E.L. Doctorow's impact on American literature is immeasurable. His innovative approach to storytelling, which blended fact and fiction, inspired a new generation of writers to experiment with genre and narrative structure. His exploration of themes such as identity, family, and social justice continues to resonate with readers today.
Doctorow's legacy extends beyond his own work; he has been recognized for his commitment to arts education and civic engagement. He served on the boards of several literary organizations and advocated for public funding of the arts.
Why They Are Widely Quoted or Remembered
E.L. Doctorow is widely quoted and remembered for his incisive insights into American history, culture, and society. His writing often challenged conventional narratives, inviting readers to question their assumptions about the past and present. As a masterful storyteller, he captured the essence of America's complexities and contradictions, leaving behind a body of work that continues to inspire and provoke.
In his own words, "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all: read a lot and write a lot." These wise words embody Doctorow's dedication to the craft of writing and his enduring legacy as one of America's greatest literary voices.
Quotes by E.L. Doctorow
E.L. Doctorow's insights on:
The bad news is that if we do in fact get off the earth we will contaminate the rest of the universe with our moral insufficiency.
The ultimate technological achievement will be escaping from the mess we've made. There will be none after that because we will reproduce everything that we did on earth, we'll go through the whole sequence all over again somewhere else, and people will read my paper as prophecy, and know that having gotten off one planet, they will be able to destroy another with confidence.
She's some kind of Socialist-anarchist-anarcho-syndicalist-Communist. Unless you're one of them you can't tell exactly what any of them are.
Es una especie de cárcel, la mente del cerebro. Tenemos estos misteriosos cerebros de mil trescientos gramos, y nos encarcelan.
Somehow he had catapulted himself beyond the world's value system. But this very fact lay upon him an awesome responsibility to maintain the illusions of other men.
It was evident to him that the world composed and recomposed itself constantly in an endless process of dissatisfaction.
Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader--not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.
I can assure you Ernest Hemingway was wrong when he said modern American literature began with Huckleberry Finn. It begins with Moby-Dick, the book that swallowed European civilization whole.
You're nothing more than a clever prostitute. You accepted the conditions in which you found yourself and you triumphed.