Edgar Lawrence (E. L.) Doctorow was born January 6, 1931, in New York, New York. He received an A.B. in philosophy (with honors) in 1952 from Kenyon College and did graduate work at Columbia University 1952-1953. He served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps from 1953-1955. He began his career as a script reader at Columbia Pictures and as a senior editor for the New American Library, 1959-1964. He was editor-in-chief for Dial Press from 1964 to 1969, where he also served as vice president and publisher in his last year on staff. It was at this time that he decided to write full time. He has written novels, short stories, essays, and a play. His debut novel, Welcome to Hard Times, was published… in 1960 and was adapted into a film in 1967. His other works include, Loon Lake, The Waterworks, The March, and Andrew's Brain. He won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1986 for World's Fair and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 1976 for Ragtime, which was adapted into a film in 1981 and a Broadway musical in 1998. Billy Bathgate received the PEN/Faulkner Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the William Dean Howells Medal in 1990. The Book of Daniel and Billy Bathgate were also adapted into films. He received the 2013 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters for his outstanding achievement in fiction writing.