E.L. Doctorow

E.L. Doctorow was an American novelist, editor, and professor best known for historical fiction. His books include Ragtime, Billy Bathgate, and The March, and he placed invented characters among real historical figures. He won the National Book Critics Circle Award three times, for Ragtime, Billy Bathgate, and The March. Billy Bathgate follows a young boy who falls in with the gangster Dutch Schultz during the Depression.