E.L. Doctorow

The American author, professor, and editor Edgar Lawrence "E. L." Doctorow was best known internationally for his outstanding works of historical fiction. His novels made him be described as one of the most important U.S.A based novelist of the 20th century.

The best place to start is the Random House Reader's Circle series, the earliest of E.L. Doctorow's multi-book series: it opens with Lives of the Poets (1984) and runs to 15 books across 1984–2013, ending with The Lullaby of Polish Girls (2013). E.L. Doctorow's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

E.L. Doctorow has 157 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1960 and 2023. 130 of them belong to 3 named series — the largest being The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures series with 18 books — and 27 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. E.L. Doctorow's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Random House Reader's Circle (1984–2013, 15 books) and The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures (1986–2017, 18 books).

This guide splits E.L. Doctorow's 157 books into 3 named series and 27 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures (18 books, 1986–2017); Random House Reader's Circle (15 books, 1984–2013); Literary Conversations (97 books, 1969–2023).