Doctorow, E.L.

American author of Russian-Jewish descent who grew up in the Bronx where his father owned a record store and his mother was a pianist. He was named Edgar after Edgar Allan Poe. Doctorow read philosophy at Kenyon College, Ohio, graduating in 1952. He met his wife, Helen Esther Setzer, during his year at Columbia University. The couple was married in 1954 in occupied Germany where Doctorow served in the U.S. Army.