Returning to civilian life, he married and worked a series of odd jobs, including reading novels for CBS Television and Columbia Pictures: "I was reading a book a day, seven days a week, and writing synopses of them," he told an interviewer years later. in philosophy in 1952, he attended Columbia University in New York for a year, but then was drafted, and he spent the next two years in the army. He attended Brand High School of Science and then went on to Kenyon College in Ohio, which had a reputation as a good school for writers: while there, he studied under the poet John Crowe Ransom and met other writers who either were or would be famous. Both of his par-ents were children of Russian Jewish immigrants, and the Jewish faith has been a powerful influence on his life and writing. Author BiographyĮdgar Lawrence Doctorow was born in the Bronx, in New York City, in 1931. The novel's influence on popular culture continues today it was adapted into a major Broadway musical in the late 1990s. Doctorow became a household name, and each new book he releases to this day is still considered a significant literary event, although it would be unreal to think that an event like Ragtime could occur more than once in one writer's lifetime.
For a period of time in the mid-seventies, it seemed there was a copy in every home. The reading public agreed: unlike many experimental works of art whose freshness makes them too difficult for widespread audiences, Ragtime became a best-seller in its initial hardcover edition.
Most reviewers agreed that Doctorow took the combination of historical and imaginary characters, a technique used often in historical novels but with only weak results, and manipulated it into a rich blend that is entertaining, challenging, and true to the spirit of the times. Some critics have picked out miscellaneous faults, but the novel was received with widespread praise when it was published in 1975.
Ragtime is one of the few novels that transcends this competition completely, having proven itself with undeniable success in both areas. It often seems that there is a competition between popular literature and artistic literature, with each one claiming the right to call itself the greater benefit to society.
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