The Resume

(January 6, 1931-July 21, 2015)
Born in Bronx, New York
Birth name was Edgar Lawrence Doctorow
Wrote the novels 'Welcome to Hard Times' (1960), 'The Book of Daniel' (1971), 'Ragtime' (1975), 'Loon Lake' (1980), 'World's Fair' (1985), 'Billy Bathgate' (1988), 'The Waterworks' (1994), 'City of God' (2000), 'The March' (2005) and 'Homer & Langley' (2009)

Why he might be annoying:

He inspired an odd rumor that his name was actually a pseudonym for either a group of eight female writers (with 'E.L.' standing for 'eight ladies') or a black physician whose initials are O.W. ('Doctor O.W.')
He decided whether to take a position as Visiting Writer at the University of California by consulting the I Ching.
John Updike wrote that his use of historical figures as characters 'smacked of playing with helpless dead puppets.'
Although his books are best sellers, the movies made from them are usually flops. ('People have always said my work is cinematic, except the directors I've worked with.')
He said, 'A writer's life is so hazardous that anything he does is bad for him: failure's bad, success is bad, impoverishment is bad, money is very, very bad. Nothing good can happen.'

Why he might not be annoying:

He was named for Edgar Allan Poe.
He was married to Helen Setzer for over 50 years.
The paperback rights for 'Ragtime' sold for a then-record $1.8 million.
The Washington Post wrote, 'Doctorow occupies one of the narrowest subsets in American letters -- the million-selling author who is taken seriously.'
He is Barack Obama's second-favorite author, after Shakespeare.

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 43]
• Celebrities Born on the Same Date [January] (Ranked: 1061930)
• Entertainment Weekly's 100 Best Books [1983-2008] (Ranked: 47)
• I am a Bronxite
• I am Known by My Initials
• I Attended Bronx High School of Science
• I Attended Columbia
• I Died in 2015 (Ranked: 84)
• I Write Bildungsroman
• Look at Me, I Got a Microphone
• Milos Forman Films
• Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century [1998] (Ranked: 86)
• Obama for America [2008]
• Profiles 33001-33250 (Ranked: 33128)
• Publisher Weekly's Best-Selling Novel of the Year (Ranked: 1975)
• Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Novels [Authors]
• We Celebrated Our Golden Anniversary
• We Died on the Same Day (Ranked: 20150721)

Year In Review:

In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 16 Votes: 37.50% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 6 Votes: 16.67% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 58 Votes: 62.07% Annoying
In 2014, Out of 22 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
In 2013, Out of 13 Votes: 53.85% Annoying
In 2012, Out of 10 Votes: 70.0% Annoying