‘Ragtime’ author EL Doctorow dies

Writer EL Doctorow, who wryly reimagined the American experience in such novels as Ragtime and The March, and applied its lessons to the past and the future in fiction and non- fiction, has died. He was 84.

He died at a New York hospital from complications of lung cancer, his son, Richard Doctorow, confirmed.

Considered one of the major authors of the 20th century, he enjoyed critical and popular success over his 50-year career. He won the National Book Award for fiction in 1986 for World’s Fair, the National Book Critics Circle award in 1989 for Billy Bathgate, and in 2005 for The March.