Biblio File

Five Essential Doctorow Reads (Plus Three Surprises)

E.L. Doctorow brought history to life.

In dozens of works over a long and storied career, the author conjured up intensely believable characters—sometimes real historical figures, sometimes imagined—who breathed life into events long past. He created historical fiction that millions of people couldn’t wait to read.

And, as a lifelong New Yorker, Doctorow chronicled the city with the piercing eye of an observer tempered by the affection of a hometown boy.

Here are five essential reads to celebrate Doctorow's consummate contribution to literature. (And it was hard to choose from his 12 novels; let us know in the comments which books you’d put on this list.)
 

City of God

City of God
Theological musings and historical conceptions of the divine morph into a detective story, as a rabbi and a rector work together to discover who stole a gigantic brass cross from a rundown Episcopal church in lower Manhattan—and how it got onto the roof of a synagogue on the Upper West Side.

 

 

 

 

Ragtime

Ragtime
Sigmund Freud, Harry Houdini, Henry Ford, Emiliano Zapata… the imagined lives of real historical figures join a cast of Doctorow’s imagined characters to create a delicious, meaty history of the early 20th century in America.

 

 

 

 

 

World's Fair

World's Fair
Visit the Bronx in the 1930s, when science promised a glittering new frontier, but a young boy is disillusioned by the shadow of the Great Depression and the looming threat of the Nazis.

 

 

 

 

 

Daniel

Book of Daniel
Moving back and forth between present and past, this fictional memoir is written by the son of accused traitors executed for passing national secrets to Russia, much like Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.

 

 

 

 

 

Homer

Homer & Langley
Two brothers inhabit a crumbling mansion on Fifth Avenue, hoarding newspapers and obsessively chronicling history.

 

 

 

 

 

Bonus: Doctorow was best known as a novelist, but he was really a writer-of-all-trades: a critic, an essayist, a playwright, and more. Dip into his short stories with All the Time in the World; his nonfiction with Creationists; and his theater with a play, Drinks before Dinner.

Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your picks! Leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend.