born Jan. 6, 1931, New York, N.Y., U.S.
U.S. novelist.
Doctorow worked as an editor and has since taught at colleges and universities. His best-selling novels have often focused on the working class and the dispossessed of earlier decades in the U.S. The Book of Daniel (1971) concerned the Rosenberg spy case. Ragtime (1975; film, 1981) incorporates actual early 20th-century American figures. Loon Lake (1980), World's Fair (1985), and Billy Bathgate (1989; film, 1991) examine the Great Depression and its aftermath. City of God (2000), concerns the efforts of a New York City Episcopal minister to renew his faith.