# Novelist E. L. Doctorow Dies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 22, 2015, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novelist-e-l-doctorow-dies/725842 "2015-07-22T02:27:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novelist-e-l-doctorow-dies/725842/1 "2015-07-22T02:27:15Z")
[E. L. Doctorow](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/books/el-doctorow-author-of-historical-fiction-dies-at-84.html?_r=0) died yesterday, July 21, 2015. You can play a game of greatness in post-war novelists, but Doctorow was great without qualification. I think his best books were _The Book of Daniel_, _Ragtime_, and _The March_. He was almost always more at home in historicals, and his next tier - _Billy Bathgate_, _World’s Fair_, and _Loon Lake_ - were also set in the past. Like all good writers of other times, he used the past to draw out universals, and so he may hold up better than writers who stuck to their now-dated contemporary worlds. One of the immortals is now forever immortal. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novelist-e-l-doctorow-dies/725842/2 "2015-07-22T02:35:18Z")
He was my college graduation commencement speaker and gave a marvelous speech (I honestly don’t remember it very well after 25 years, but I remember how much I enjoyed it then). He will be missed. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novelist-e-l-doctorow-dies/725842/3 "2015-07-22T09:27:06Z")
Oh crap. I was thinking about him for the last few days. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novelist-e-l-doctorow-dies/725842/4 "2015-07-22T10:59:59Z")
Comes from New Rochelle, NY - home of Rob and Laura Petrie of the Dick van Dyke Show and one town over from my bedroom 'burb. I must admit I had been pronouncing his name “DOC-tor-oh” and am hearing it on the radio as “doc-TOR-oh”. :smack: I enjoyed reading the books of his I did, but always kinda felt I was being lectured at. Not the same as being dazzled at, say, like by Nabokov, but more that I should hear the “real” points ELD was making as I read him. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novelist-e-l-doctorow-dies/725842/5 "2015-07-22T14:34:16Z")
The only novel ever assigned to me in high school in a history class was **Ragtime**. It was brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novelist-e-l-doctorow-dies/725842/6 "2015-07-22T15:46:29Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > I must admit I had been pronouncing his name “DOC-tor-oh” and am hearing it on the radio as “doc-TOR-oh”. > > :smack: I always pronounced it the first way and Cory Doctorow pronounces it that way. They are probably related through grandparents or great-grandparents, although different branches of a family often pronounce names in different ways. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novelist-e-l-doctorow-dies/725842/7 "2015-07-22T15:59:47Z")
I’ve read almost all of Doctorow – at one time he was my favorite contemporary writer. My favorite is still the first, _Welcome to Hard Times_. I also love \*World’s Fair \*and _Loon Lake_. An amazing talent. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novelist-e-l-doctorow-dies/725842/8 "2015-07-22T16:05:29Z")
I had no idea that E. L. stood for Edgar Lawrence. That’s my son’s name! ---
**Author:** ![Hopeful\_Crow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/da6949/32.png) [@Hopeful\_Crow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hopeful_Crow)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novelist-e-l-doctorow-dies/725842/9 "2015-07-23T17:35:41Z")
I very much liked _Homer & Langley._ The last line will always stick in my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novelist-e-l-doctorow-dies/725842/10 "2015-07-23T18:43:45Z")
Aw. Loved _Ragtime_, was delighted to find out the connection a few years later between that book and Kleist’s _Michael Kohlhaas_ a few years after I’d read it–one of the first cross-pollination-among-books I’d become aware of as an adult (albeit a young one). The rest of Doctorow’s books that I’ve read were less memorable, but Ragtime was so outstanding… ---
**Author:** ![Hermione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cdc98d/32.png) [@Hermione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novelist-e-l-doctorow-dies/725842/11 "2015-07-23T19:29:27Z")
_I see his face, I hear his heartbeat, I look in his eyes, How wise they seem, Well, when he is old enough, I will show him America, And he will ride… Our son will ride… On the wheels of a dream._ R.I.P., E.L. (No coincidence that the Little Boy in Ragtime–the only named character in the white families–was named Edgar, right?)